Strawberry Jam Tartlets

Who doesn’t like fresh strawberries?

Really- if you can find that person, bring him or her to me and I’ll get to the bottom of whatever scarring childhood incident caused the aversion. A good old-fashioned force-feeding of this strawberry tartlet should cure anyone of their indifference, believe you me. (Eating anything labelled as a “tartlet” is a cure for all ills, really.)

So I’m all about no regrets in life (oh, except maybe for a recurring marshmallow disaster), but I kind of admit that I regret not serving this dessert with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream. Don’t you agree it would have gone well with the crispy, flaky crust, and the tartness of the berry? Especially if the dessert was still a little bit warm from the oven, with little pools of melting ice cream forming around the border of the tart. Are you with me? At the very least, a little dollop of whipped cream would have worked. I guess there’s always next time.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons sugar
pinch salt
5 tablespoons (1/3 cup) butter, unsalted and very cold, diced
2 tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 1/2 cups strawberry preserves
15 strawberries, sliced
1. PASTRY: In a food processor, whirl together flour, sugar and salt. Pulse in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Drizzle in the vinegar and the cold water and pulse until the wet ingredients are integrated; the mixture should still be very crumbly. (Feel free to do this by hand using two knives or a pastry cutter.)
2. For little tarts (as pictured), use small tart pans (ideally with loose bottoms). For a large tart, use an 8 or 9″ tart pan with a removable bottom. Press dough into the tart pan, across bottom and up sides. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375°.
4. Spread strawberry preserves into chilled tart shell(s) and bake for 15 minutes for small tart pans, and 25 minutes for a large tart pan (until crust looks golden). Allow to cool (on a cooling rack) before arranging sliced strawberries over top. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.
Tips:
- Prefer another kind of fruit? Go ahead and use raspberry jam, apricot, peach, blueberry… you see where I’m going with this, right? Use whatever you’d like. You could even mix & match the jam and the fruit if you’re feeling nutty.
- You might end up with extra pastry if you’re making the little tarts, unless you happen to have a lot of tart pans. (I made a full tart, an 8″ one, and robbed some of the dough to make a cute little one.) When in doubt, freeze the extra pastry and save it for a rainy day.
- Wait until your strawberries dry a bit before sprinkling confectioners’ sugar over top- otherwise the sugar will just dissolve into the strawberry juice. You can also dab them with paper towels if you’re slicing & serving… that way you won’t risk ending up with dried out berries.
- These freeze really well- without the fruit on top! Freeze the baked shell with the jam, and then thaw and serve with fresh fruit in the moment.
- Feel like a chocolate tart? You need to make the Chocolate Ganache Tart with Pecan Crust. Pronto.
- Cheers to fresh berries!
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August 15th, 2013 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: Fruit, Tarts