Raspberry Tarts – All on a Summer’s Day

Who likes raspberries? Who likes tarts? Good, that should be just about everybody. It certainly describes my family. We are very lucky in raspberries. Thank the previous owner of our suburban Twin Cities home. They thoughtfully provided a full raised bed of late summer bearing brambles tucked into the back of our secret (fenced) garden. This year I pruned, fertilized, and am now picking about 1 qt of berries per day.

But really, back to the tarts. Because raspberries should get hooked up with sugar, flour, butter and egg as quickly as possible. This recipe is originally from “The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook”. I’ve seen it floating around the internet in a few places and tweaked it into my own little delicious treat.

I am joined in this venture as usual by my trusty helper… who incidentally just turned 4! Four years old and baking like a champ…

Find the finished recipe below the fun pictures.

Summer’s Day Raspberry Tarts  

Gather ingredients – we will need more sugar than this but it didn’t all fit on the cutting board.Mix up your dry ingredients, cut in butter. We ended up doubling this recipe (again, we have a lot of raspberries) and used 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening. I would recommend sticking with butter – they turned out almost TOO flakey (OMG, is that a thing??).

Add egg yolk and lemon juice to the dough, give a little stir and pop in the fridge until ye olde berries are ready.

Mix up the cornstarch, water, sugar, and fresh berries. I decreased the sugar a little from the original recipe… still plenty sweet!

Give a little stir and heat on medium heat until everything starts to thicken. Keep stirring, otherwise the bottom of your saucepan will get sludgy. Trust me on this.

Once your filling is ready take it off the heat and let it cool a bit. Take out the dough and roll about 1/8 inch thick.

I used a biscuit cutter at this point, but a clean cup or something else round would work too. Place into muffin pans… cause seriously, fancy tart pans are way beyond me. No need to spray the pan. Fill each little tart shell with raspberry filling – about 2/3 full.

Bake as directed! Enjoy the smells!

And voila. So good. So flakey. Taste like summer. I think we will bring these with us for our annual Labor Day cabin trip Up North. Yes, around here we capitalize Up North. Enjoy!

Summer’s Day Raspberry Tarts

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1⁄4teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup fresh raspberry
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1⁄4 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles tiny peas.
3. Combine egg yolk and lemon juice with a fork.
4. Sprinkle egg yolk mixture over flour mixture and stir together with a fork until it forms a ball. Refrigerate until ready to use.
5. Combine cornstarch and cold water in a small saucepan until smooth. Stir in sugar and raspberries. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until thickened, about 10-15 minutes. Allow mixture to cool.
6. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll 1/8″ thick. Cut tart shapes with biscuit cutter or top of cup.
7. Spoon filling evenly into tart shells, filling each no more than 2/3 full.
8. Bake at 425° F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° F and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.
9. Remove from oven and cool, in pans, for 15 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling racks and cool completely.