I taught myself how to write backward just for funsies in middle school (nerd alert!), and in that antiquated pre–text messaging era, would write all my friends notes in backward script. They would have to flip the page into the light or hold it up to a mirror to read.
I daresay this code—a simple combination of chocolate pastry, raspberry lemon curd, and melon messaging—is decidedly easier to craft and decipher. Take your best crack at it!
1 fully baked Chocolate Tart Pastry Shell
PINK LEMONADE CURD
1 cup (4 ounces/125 grams) fresh red raspberries
½ cup (118 milliliters) fresh lemon juice, from about 4 lemons
Zest of 1 lemon
½ cup (99 grams) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
4 tablespoons (½ stick/57 grams) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Press the raspberries through a fine-mesh sieve into a 2-quart saucepan using a silicone spatula, scraping to extract as much puree as possible. Discard the remaining seeds.
3. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, salt, eggs, and egg yolks to the saucepan with the raspberry puree and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat, whisking continuously, until the mixture is warmed through. Add the butter gradually and stir until all the cubes have melted. Continue cooking until the mixture is thick enough to coat a spatula, 5 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping the corners of the saucepan.
4. Remove from the heat and strain the curd through a fine-mesh sieve.
5. Keep the baked tart shell in the tart pan and place on a baking sheet. Pour the curd into the tart shell and smooth the surface.
6. Bake the tart for 5 minutes, just to set the filling.
7. Cool completely before decorating.
ALIEN CODE DESIGN PROCESS
1 small cantaloupe
1 small honeydew melon
1-inch square cutter
1-inch circle cutter
1 × ½-inch rectangle cutter
Chef’s knife
Paring knife
Ruler
1. Slice the cantaloupe in half and scoop out the seeds. Keep half on your work space, and reserve the other half for another tart or to wrap with prosciutto for dinner! Do the same for the honeydew melon.
2. Place each melon half cut-side down and slice into ¼-inch slices.
3. Using 1-inch shape cutters, punch out an assortment of squares, rectangles, and circles from the melon slices, avoiding the skin. Cut all the shapes in half—the circles into half moons, the squares into rectangles, and the rectangles into right triangles.
4. Lay a ruler horizontally across the tart, one inch from the top, resting the ruler on the edges of the pan. Starting from the left edge of the tart, construct a 1-inch row of alien code, varying the fruits and shapes in a freestyle arrangement as you go along. For the uninitiated, my code here roughly translates to “One melon light-years from the pun.” Jury’s out if extraterrestrials also find my jokes alien.
5. When the first row has been completed, move the ruler down 1½ inches to allow a ½-inch gap between rows. Continue laying down code, alternating between shapes and their directional placement, until the entire surface of the tart has been covered.
6. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve. This tart is best consumed within 2 days.
SUGGESTED SUBSTITUTIONS
Crust alternatives: Speculoos Cookie Crust, Coconut Pecan Crust, Basic Tart Pastry Shell
Topping alternatives: Mango, papaya, pineapple, kiwi, dragon fruit