Summer Melon Tart

Serves 6

Sugar dough
1 cup Butter
1 cup Powdered sugar
8 oz Egg yolks
1 cup Flour
3 oz Baking powder

Vanilla Curd
1 qt Cream
10 oz Egg yolks
1 Vanilla bean
4 Gelatin sheets
7 oz Sugar

32 Melon balls
32 Cantaloupe balls
32 Watermelon balls

In a mixing bowl, mix butter and sugar until creamy, then add egg yolk, flour and baking powder and stir to combine. Refrigerate dough for one hour. On a flat surface, roll out the dough and cut out eight 3” rounds. Place on baking sheet and bake in oven at 350° F for 7 minutes. Remove and allow to cool down.

In a saucepan, bring cream to a boil with vanilla bean. In a mixing pan, pour vanilla-cream mix over egg yolk, stir well, then pour the mix back into saucepan and cook until thickened. Remove from stove, add gelatin, and stir well. Chill and refrigerate.

Pipe a dollop of vanilla cream onto each sugar dough. Arrange 4 melon, 4 cantaloupe and 4 watermelon balls on top of each vanilla curd and serve.

Biltmore Executive Pastry Chef Olivier Rodriguez