Strawberry Tarts

It's really not all that complicated...it's just the pastry that most people have trouble with. It took me a long time to get pastry right. The key is to not handle it too much. This pastry recipe is the best I've found so far. It's adapted and changed just a little from a recipe that I found at LCBO Food & Drink.


First cut your fruit, and add some sugar, corn starch, a tiny bit of vanilla and cinnamon to the cut fruit. It should create a nice thick syrup with the fruits natural juices. I don't measure the amounts...sorry..


In a bowl combine: 2 1/2 cups of flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 3 tbsp sugar, about a tsp of baking power and mix well. Then add one cup of butter and use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the dry mixture. When it's well mixed, meaning the butter is no longer in big chunks....


In a small bowl, beat 1 tsp of vanilla with one egg. Make a little well in the flour mixture adding sprinkles of water just until the dough holds together.


Roll out the dough on a well floured surface and use a medium sized round cutter. Or as my mama and Tetka do...use a big mouthed glass. That would be the Eastern European pastry cutter. Shot glasses for cookies, y'all.


Roll cut pieces out a little so that they fit into the tart tins. I saved mine from all the times I was too lazy to make the pastry myself. However, I ran out and had to improvise, by folding the fruit into little triangles. While you're doing this, preheat the oven to 350F.


Brush the triangles with beaten egg...and do it to the tarts too with the fruit in them, just brushing the edges. Nobody likes pasty pastry...right?

Bake until the edges are toasty brown.