TWD: Fresh Strawberry Cream Tarts

So this week was busy. I wasn't sure I could get to the Strawberry Tart, because I am traveling for work from Monday thru Thurs and a last minute cupcake order came up on Friday that I agreed to do. Marie from A Year in Oak Cottage chose the La Palette Strawberry Tart from Dorie's book, and it looked pretty simple to pull together except I really hadn't made too many tart crusts before, and not with the food processor way that was mentioned.

Lucky for me I woke up at 6am on Sunday, bright eyed and bushy-tailed even though I really wanted to sleep 2 more hours. I just got up and figured I could nap later. So this is a Sunday wee-hour TWD, amazingly enough I got the tart crust to work for me on minimal coffee and before I even ate anything.



First off, I don't have a food processor. I know, crazy huh?! I have one of those little mini ones from C&B that was like $49.99 about 6 years ago. I use it wherever things say 'dice' or 'chop' or even for puree since I am lazy, but I didn't know how it would fare for the tart dough creation.

I also wanted to make 2 4" mini tarts because again, I'm leaving for 4 days and I just wanted to taste this thing...not make my husband eat it for dinner for the next week. A fresh carton of strawberries were sitting in the fridge, just waiting.

I made a more spiced nut version of the tart crust...so created my dough in the mini pseudo-FP, pressed it into tart pans, chilled in the freezer, baked. They looked cute and didn't crack much. I was definitely not into patching anything up the way the book said...I like the rustic look!



Chopped up some strawberries..and because I wasn't keen on the whole jam and berries only in my little tart packages, I whipped up some heavy cream, added some confectioners sugar, coconut and my new liquer of choice for this week...Chambord!



Tossed some sliced strawberries on both of them, shaved chocolate on one and put a dollop of rosewater whipped cream on the other with some cracked black pepper....interesting combination of flavors there. Sweet yet spicy.





Funny note re: eating the tarts. My better half doesn't typically like sports...thank goodness. However, since he disocvered Formula One racing, he is mesmerized. And of course we have TiVo...so now on Sunday afternoons he likes to just hang with the dog and relax while I play in the kitchen. As you can see, the Portia rat is pretty impressed (isn't she just the cutest?!).



So, I give him a plate with a tart on it. Keep in mind, we just had breakfast like 2 hours ago. He goes 'oh I'm so full'. I said 'you don't have to eat it'...ten minutes later the thing is gone. And my hub is pretty picky, if he's not hungry he won't eat it. He gave it mega-thumbs up.

So I *was* going to give one of the tarts to our good friends, our neighbors, because due to busy schedules we haven't seen them in a while and I didn't want them to think we don't love them anymore. But when the better half scarfed one of the tarts, I had only had a bite. Nevertheless, I gave the tart to our pals, since I really don't need to be eating any more tart than a bite.

I would definitely make this again, I loved the shortbread cookie-ish crust and the strawberries with the cream...perfect combo. The crust was easy to make even with no real FP...though it was crazy about crumbling once you cut into it, and the filling was easy to whip up. This is something you can make for mega-presentation points but doesn't take much work..my favorite kind of dessert.



Check out the rest of the fabulous TWD community's tarts here...and since I'm traveling, I probably won't have the time to check out all the fabulous results like I typically do...but I am still reading and appreciating comments! Thanks for choosing a great recipe, Miss Marie!



Oh and for anyone wondering about the state of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer (broken from the TWD brioche!)...I took it in this wkd and the estimate is a whopping $265!!! I bought it for $200 on eBay about 8 years ago so it might be time for another one. Though Ms. 9SpeedHandMixer has been doing fabulously on her own lately. Hmmm.