He Flattens to Conquer

NEW YORK —  In a skyscraper town like New York, perhaps it was inevitable that even something as fleeting as dessert would reach for the heavens.

Many a meal in a tony Gotham restaurant has ended with a towering pastiche of delicate sweets. Yet while everyone around builds higher, pastry chef Maury Rubin’s signature desserts remain decidedly flat.

And flat, in this case, is beautiful. Every one of his 4-inch tarts is a perfect round of pastry enclosing an exquisite filling--chocolate custard, cranberries and almonds or passion fruit cream. The adornment is a mere bead or thread of chocolate applied with a steady hand. If an urban aesthetic can be expressed in a dessert, Rubin has done just that.

Declaring a love for geometric designs and simplicity, Rubin is bucking the trends and establishing a minimalist style. Restaurant “architectural” desserts aside, his bakery’s signature tarts are a reaction against what the chef sees as a staleness in American pastry design. “Perhaps,” he muses in his “Book of Tarts,” “if the neighborhood American bakery had some creative verve, it would not have become nearly extinct.”

Overdecorated cakes and mountains of frosting are anathema to his less-is-more sensibility. He even does without the eye-catching shiny glaze that frequently adorns bakery fruit tarts. “Let the beauty and flavor of fresh fruit stand on their own,” Rubin suggests in one recipe.

At Rubin’s City Bakery, with its high white walls and stainless steel counter tops, the atmosphere is not what you’d call homey and inviting, but it is distinctive and it is catching on: Austerity is becoming hip in commercial design these days. Among his own inspirations, Rubin lists architect Frank Lloyd Wright; his taste in music leans toward jazz.

But Rubin understands that his vision of what’s “original and revelatory” will not be to everyone’s taste. And in the starkness of his visual approach, Rubin hopes customers don’t miss out on his sense of fun.

“There is something about this,” Rubin says as he scans the bakery, greeting regulars with a hello, “that makes people think it’s got to be serious.” He points out the honeycombed paper fruit that hangs above a cash register as evidence of whimsy. “An important part of design here--for the pastry, for the bakery--is fun.”

For Rubin, fun extends to getting trademark status for the name of one tart in his repertoire, the “World’s First Stuffed Raspberry Tart.” “It represents how my work is different. It’s not just pretty things on top of each other--that’s just building. But putting chocolate inside a raspberry, that’s architecture.”

He adds: “My next-door neighbor is a patent attorney. Maybe that’s where the inspiration came from.”

And although he didn’t set out to make the popular 4-inch tarts his signature, they did “lend themselves to being singled out,” Rubin says. “I like the idea of individual desserts. It’s a little bit indulgent, but I think dessert should be.”

Building a thriving business around indulgence requires that an American sense of practicality be present, even in the recipes. The home baker who shies away from tarts and pastry because they are difficult to master should try Rubin’s way. His basic pastry dough is designed to be worked repeatedly--a heresy to traditional French pa^tisseurs. Why? “I wasn’t experienced enough to buy all the standard assumptions,” he says.

Rubin is one of the new wave food professionals who did not apprentice at an early age and for whom cooking is a second career. His resume includes a stint with Howard Cosell producing TV sports. He began his education in food with zealous, dedicated reading and only then apprenticed in the pa^tisseries of Paris.

He returned to the U.S. eager to apply the principle of using fresh, local, seasonal ingredients to the operation of a bakery. His tarts embody this philosophy in being made of organic flour, farm-fresh cream and fresh berries only when they flourish in the summer.

Talk turns to a recent Mondrian show he’s viewed, and it’s clear Rubin’s observations about art and design are inextricably linked to his work. Acknowledging a connection between his urban sensibilities and his style, Rubin says, “Somehow all of that feeds into me, and these lines and dots come out.”

FRUIT TARTS WITH LEMON CREAM

TART SHELLS

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter, cut into 13 pieces

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon whipping cream

Let butter sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes. Butter should be malleable but still cool.

Cream sugar and butter at medium speed until sugar is no longer visible. Add egg yolk and beat until well blended. Add half of flour and beat until dough becomes crumbly. Add remaining flour and then cream and beat until the dough forms a sticky mass.

Shape dough into disk and wrap well in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

Dust work surface with flour. Cut dough into 1-inch pieces. Using heel of your hand, thoroughly knead pieces, working back into smooth disk. Use dough scraper or knife to free dough from surface if necessary. Keeping surface well-dusted, roll disk into a foot-long log. Cut log into 8 equal pieces. Wrap and refrigerate for 5 minutes.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set 8 flan rings on top. Dust work surface and rolling pin with flour. Using your fist, flatten 1 piece of dough into 2- to 3-inch round. Lift dough off work surface to dust underneath with flour. Roll dough into a 5 1/2-inch round, about 1/8-inch thick. Prick holes all over dough with fork. (If dough is too soft to handle, use dough scraper to move to small baking sheet and refrigerate for 2 to 3 minutes.)

Center round of dough over flan ring. With thumbs on inside and tips of fingers outside, run hands around the ring or pan several times, easing dough into ring. Speed does not matter, finesse does. Lower thumbs to inside bottom of ring and press into pan. There should be at least 1/2-inch rim of excess dough extending above top edge. With small knife tilted upward, trim excess dough flush with top of ring. Repeat process with remaining dough. (Refrigerate scraps as you work, then combine them and refrigerate or freeze for another use.)

Freeze tart shells for 30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove rings and, using wide spatula, transfer shells to wire rack to cool.

FILLING

1 cup granulated sugar

Grated peel of 1 lemon

1/2 cup lemon juice

4 eggs

1 egg yolk

3/4 cup butter, cut into 6 pieces

8 tart shells

2 cups cut up assorted seasonal fruits and/or whole berries

Combine sugar and grated peel in bowl. Rub together between palms of hands.

Strain lemon juice into medium nonreactive saucepan. Add eggs, egg yolk, butter and sugar-peel combination and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture begins to thicken, 3 to 5 minutes. Be sure to whisk all over bottom of pan, especially at edges. At first sign of boiling, remove from heat and strain through fine sieve into bowl.

Fill each tart shell nearly to top with lemon cream; refrigerate any leftover. Refrigerate tarts for 30 minutes or until set. Arrange fruit in free-form patterns on tops of tarts.

Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

411 calories; 213 mg sodium; 224 mg cholesterol; 22 grams fat; 48 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.06 gram fiber.