Recipe

Raspberry Tarts from Strawberry Hill

Recipe
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Photo by fineartdaily

This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Late Winter Tart (Sweet or Savory)

This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Raspberries
Chef
fineartdaily's Notes: When I was little we would go for walks along a private drive that is now covered with many houses. I doubt if our bushes are still there. There was a red raspberry bush and a black raspberry...
When I was little we would go for walks along a private drive that is now covered with many houses. I doubt if our bushes are still there. There was a red raspberry bush and a black raspberry bush. We learned to pick the sun-warmed berries without getting scratched by the rasping thorns or fearing the many bees. It was always hot, and the sweet berries were warm in our mouths and their juices dripped down our little chins. There is not a better taste than eating something you have picked yourself. That is why I like this recipe. It is basic and pure. My mother would argue about the inclusion of corn starch as being a little fancy. Eaten at room temperature these bring me back to Strawberry Hill, and the long warm summer walks we took. And as the winter is winding down we can finally look forward to languid summer days, and all the raspberries we desire.

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Makes 12 tartlets

1 cup flour Ask a question about this ingredient

1/3 cup sugar Ask a question about this ingredient

2 tablespoons sugar Ask a question about this ingredient

1/4 cup butter Ask a question about this ingredient

1/2 cup fresh, washed raspberries Ask a question about this ingredient

1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch Ask a question about this ingredient

1/3 cup water Ask a question about this ingredient

4 cups fresh, washed fat raspberries Ask a question about this ingredient

1 cup heavy whipping cream Ask a question about this ingredient

1 teaspoon good vanilla extract Ask a question about this ingredient

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel Ask a question about this ingredient

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the flour, 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the butter. Beat it in a food processor or by hand until crumbly. Press the dough into tart pans, forming that perfect crust that you master along about the tenth pan. Bake at until golden, about 15 – 18 minutes. Cool.
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Raspberry sauce: 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup sugar, ½ cup raspberries (mashed). Bring to a boil over medium heat. Mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water, and add to the pan. Blend together and cool.
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Don’t do this too far ahead of time, or your perfect little tart crusts may get soggy. Pour the raspberry sauce into the tart shells. This will be the glue for your berries.
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Arrange the raspberries in pleasing mounds in the tartlets.
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Whip the cream until peaks form. Add vanilla, 1 tablespoon of sugar and the lemon peel.
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Pile whipped cream on top of your artful berry mounds and distribute spoons. Ah, summer.
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15 Comments on Raspberry Tarts from Strawberry Hill

boulangere added 10 months ago

If you cook and bake even half as well as you paint, your talents would still be extraordinary. Lovely story.

fineartdaily added 10 months ago

How very kind of you! I am an uneven baker and a risky cook - but the children made it through childhood relatively unscathed... I can't persuade anyone that tomatoes and watermelon would make a delightful Fourth of July salad but they seem to think that our Potato Salad á la Cornwall is the traditional route, and one that should be followed without deviation!
Watch out for those hot sparklers!