Black and Red Raspberry Tart

prep: 40 minutes, plus 1 hour resting in refrigerator (the dough, not you)
bake: 15 minutes

for the crust you’ll need…
1¼ cups flour (and a little extra for dusting)
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch slices
¼ cup cold solid vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
2 tablespoons cold vodka
2 tablespoons cold water

for the cream filling you’ll need…
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

for the topping…
1½ lbs black and red raspberries, mixed

let’s get to it…
Mix half the flour and salt in a food processor for 2-seconds. Add the butter and shortening and pulse about 10 to 15 times or until dough looks like cottage cheese and there is no loose flour; scrape bowl. Add remaining flour and pulse 5 or 6 times.
Remove dough from food processor and place in a medium bowl. Sprinkle vodka and water over dough and fold until dough sticks together and all liquid is absorbed. Flatten dough into a 4-inch disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. (You’ll still be able to see little pieces of butter in the dough).
Mix sugar, flour and salt together in a medium-mixing bowl.
Heat milk in a saucepan until hot (but not boiling). Stir the milk into the sugar mixture and beat until well blended.
Pour mixture back into the saucepan and continue to stir rapidly over low heat for about 5 minutes until thickand smooth (keep stirring or your pastry cream will get lumpy!).
Stir in egg yolks; cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool 15 minutes; stir in vanilla. Refrigerate until needed.
Dust rolling pin and work surface with flour. Remove dough disk from refrigerator. Roll dough in a circle to a uniform thickness (about ⅛-to-¼-inch thick), about 1-inch larger than an upside down 10 or 12-inch tart pan.
Place rolled-out dough into tart pan and press gently into form of plate. Use excess dough to mend any sports or holes in dough. Prick the bottom and sides of the dough so you can “blind bake” the crust.* Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes.
Spread the cooled pastry cream on the bottom of baked tart shell. Arrange the raspberries as desired or just spoon them on top freestyle. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

*Blind baking, also called pre-baking, is baking a crust without the filling. You do this when the filling has a shorter bake time than the crust, or the filling doesn’t need to be baked at all (as in the case of this tart). Blind baking also helps the crust from becoming soggy. You can prick the bottom and sides of the crust so it keeps its shape during baking. A better idea is to use a pie-weight. Dried beans or lentils on a piece of parchment paper (on top of the dough) work well, too.