The Confident

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The signature of “The Confident”
A “Confident”
A local “Winemaker's tart”
This large poster was offered to the residents of the Bourgueil area during the Bourgueil’s farmer’s and culinary craft market. Showcasing the recipe and tradition of “The Confident” is today hung up in the kitchen of the Verrerie for the participants of the next year's edition to reproduce and bond with.
The poster of the 2018 edition of Bourgueil’s farmer’s and culinary craft market
Explaining “The Confident” to the head biscuit maker of the ”Biscuiterie de Chambord”, one of the most traditional biscuit artisan of the region.

The Soft Protest Digest spent the first twenty days of July 2018 working in the summer house of the Verrerie, sheltered under the trees of the chestnut orchard. This research based residency, located in one of the most important french wine region, halfway between the cities of Tours and Bourgueil, can boast from a rich historic and culinary heritage. Throughout this period, the Verrerie became the production lab of a genuine regional pastry tradition: “The Confident”.

In the course of a preliminary discussion with IEHCA[1] food historian and contributor to the Inventory of Centre’s region culinary heritage Loïc Bienassis, Loïc listed three notions fundamental to the scientific denomination of a regional culinary tradition:

1. The storyline of a culinary tradition is very hard and often impossible to trace back to its source.
2. A culinary recipe can only be called regional tradition if its existence can be proved to be more than 60 years old.
3. A regional tradition can be considered as such if it falls within the historical, artisanal and agricultural narrative of the region.

Therefore, The Soft Protest Digest consciously drew inspiration from the Winemaker’s tart[2] and set to produce a poached peach pie (peach being in season), garnished with a candied chestnut and served with a Bourgueil wine syrup as well as a light purple whipped cream flavored with that same syrup. Day after day, in collaboration with the residents of the Verrerie (and occasionally with a few curious neighbors), The Soft Protest Digest repeated and fine-tuned the recipe, the design, the serving ritual and the tasting of his pie. Thanks to their daily conversations and debates, the Friends of the Verrerie gave shape to “The Confident”.

As the daily ritual of the residents was now established in the landscape of the Verrerie, The Soft Protest Digest took on to make “The Confident” be known on a regional scale. For the 2018 yearly edition of Bourgueil’s farmer’s and culinary craft market, The Soft Protest Digest presented the pie on a personalized stall to the curious visitors of the fair as well as the local pastry and biscuit makers of the region. Hiding the real origin of ”The Confident” behind the tale of an ancient recipe found in the attic of the house of the Verrerie, The Soft Protest Digest was careful in spreading the tradition properly. He thus offered to the visitors complimentary pamphlets containing: a detailed recipe of the pie, the scenario of the tradition as well as the made up historical introduction.

A few pastry makers, always in search of some unique recipes, sounded worried by the fact that their direct competitors may have been informed of this historical pie. We may come back and visit one day, and we may find The Confident showcased in the windows of a few bakeries, and why not even in the Inventory of Centre’s region culinary heritage…

Scenario of “The tradition of the Confident”

The tradition will be held everyday around the bond-fire, under the night stars. The Confident will have to be shared equally in-between the present friends. The one whom will taste the candied chestnut in her/his slice will have the chance to designate a friend to share the tradition with. Together, they will choose a chestnut tree under which they will both share a secret. After both secrets are shared, they will then whisper it back in one of the cracks of the trunk of the chestnut tree to seal the secret forever.

Take a sneak peek

🎞🎥Serving and eating “The Confident” around the bondire.

Recipe of “The Confident” (in french)

Ingrédients

Pâte

  • 250g de farine
  • 125g de beurre
  • 1 pincée de sel
  • 1 cuillère à s. miel liquide
  • 1 jaune d'œuf
  • 1/2 coquille d'eau
  • 1/2 cuillère à s. de sucre
  • 1 cutter (ou scalpel, couteau précis)
  • 1 règle
  • 1 moule rond sans fond de 16cm de diamètre par 6cm de hauteur
  • 1 cul de poule

Pêches sucrées

  • 6 pêches de vigne
  • 4 cuillère à soupe de sucre blanc

Sirop de vin de Bourgueil

  • 225cl de vin de Bourgueil
  • 60g de sucre blanc

Montage du Confident

Pêches sucrées 1. Retirez la peau de 6 pêches de vigne que vous aurez ébouillantées une minute dans une eau frémissante.
2. Découpez les pêches en deux, gardez les parures, et réservez.
3. Retirez les deux tiers de l’eau de cuisson et ajoutez et ajoutez 4 cuillères à soupe de sucre blanc, portez à ébullition.
4. Placez les demi-pêches et les parures dans le sirop et laissez cuire à feu moyen (une quinzaine de minutes) jusqu’à l’évaporation quasi-complète du sirop.
5. Laissez complètement refroidir les pêches puis garnir la tourte.

Sirop de vin de Bourgueil 1. Versez 225cl de vin de Bourgueil et 60g de sucre dans une petite casserole.
2. Placez à feu vif jusqu’à ce que le sirop gonfle et tente de sortir de la casserole.
3. Baissez le feu et laissez frémir 4 minutes.
4. Laissez refroidir.

Pâte 1. Dans le cul de poule, effritez le beurre dans la farine du bout des doigts pour l'y intégrer sans qu'il fonde.
2. Ajoutez à la poudre obtenue le sel, le jaune d'œuf, l'eau et le miel, et travaillez la pâte. Réservez au frais les 2/3 de la boule de pâte obtenue.
3. Avec le tiers restant, réalisez un disque d’un diamètre 3cm plus large que le moule. Décollez-le soigneusement pour le disposer sur le sucre préalablement réparti sur le papier cuisson.
4. Avec un second tiers de boule, réalisez un disque à la taille du moule. Réservez.
5. Avec le dernier tiers, étalez une longue bande de 12cm de hauteur. La couper droit au milieu dans la longueur, puis la décoller soigneusement et la répartir uniformément sur les bords du moule beurré.
6. Pliez les 3cm de débords du fond de tarte vers l'intérieur et posez le moule tapissé de pâte dessus. Collez les débords de pâte repliés aux bords du moule pour obtenir un fond de pâte étanche.
7. Répartissez les pêches bien à plat et cachez-y un gros marron glacé.
8. Disposez le couvercle de pâte sur l’appareil.
9. Découpez les formes traditionnelles (voir illustrations) ainsi que le V de «Verrerie». Déposez-les harmonieusement sur le couvercle.
12. Mélangez un œuf entier dans un bol et dorez la pâte au pinceau.
13. Cuire au four à 200 degrés pendant 40 minutes ou jusqu’à ce que le Confident soit bien doré.

Notes

  1. European Institute of History and Cultures of Food
  2. The ’Winemaker's tart‘ is an apple tart glazed with a Bourgueil red wine jam sold in most of the bakeries of the region and always advertised as a “Speciality of the house since…