Celebrating Julie & Julia with a Tarte au Fromage Frais

Today is the day of the much anticipated release of the movie Julie & Julia. For this week's Mastering the Art of French Cooking challenge, I decided that I needed to celebrate the big day with some kind of dessert, and while flipping through the dessert section of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a recipe for Tarte au Fromage Frais (Cream Cheese Tart--hot or cold, p.647) caught my eye.
The recipe calls for an eight-inch Pâte Brisée Sucrée (Sweet Short Paste, p.633) pastry shell. The book explains that "[a] French tart . . . is straight sided and . . . is molded in a bottomless metal flan ring that has been set on a baking sheet. When the tart is done, the ring is removed and the tart is slid from the baking sheet to a rack or the serving dish." If you don't have one of these rings, the option to use a "false-bottomed, straight-sided, cake pan 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep" is suggested. I have neither a metal flan ring, nor a false-bottomed, straight-sided, cake pan. I do have a false-bottomed scalloped-edge tart pan, but I really wanted to attempt a straight edge, feeling that it would be "inappropriate" to have the "inauthentic" scalloped edge on a tart that was celebrating the story of Julia Child. So I improvised and used an eight-inch spring-form pan.
While the edges of a spring-form pan are indeed straight-sided, the depth is much deeper than 1 to 1 1/2 inches. This made it difficult to get the pastry into the pan, mold it evenly, and get it to look pretty.
Julia writes, "French dessert tarts, like French entrée tarts and quiches, are open faced and stand supported only by their pastry shells. They should be beautiful to look at . . . ." Although my tart was straight-sided and open faced, it's beauty was more of a rustic beauty because it was imperfect. Sorry Julia!
The filling is a simple cream cheese, butter, sugar, and egg mixture, given a bit of extra flavor by a pinch of nutmeg.
Everything is creamed together, poured into the partially baked pastry shell, and then baked in the oven for about half an hour. The tart comes out of the oven a bit puffy and sinks slightly as it cools.
Growing up I always asked my mom to make me cheesecake on my birthday, instead of a traditional birthday cake. This tart is reminiscent of those cheesecakes, but not as heavy.
It is silky and creamy with just a hint of the nutmeg coming through. I stepped outside of the Julia box slightly and drizzled a raspberry sauce (raspberries puréed with granulated sugar with the seeds strained out) over the top. I liked the bit of red on the plate (red is my favorite color), and the added raspberry flavor complimented the cream cheese filling.
The tart, although imperfect in appearance, was delicious. Although the crust prep was a bit more intensive, the actual tart prep was quick and easy. If you did the crust ahead of time, this tart would be a breeze to whip up and have on the table as a special dessert for family or guests. Now that we celebrated with a bit of dessert, go and see the movie!