I Heart Tarts

I'm officially in love with tarts- perhaps even more than pies and so much that we dallied together until 1:30AM. I was supposed to make one simple tart for a tea party that I was having with my friend Monica and Aunt Enie. Somehow it turned into five tarts and a peach galette. I started with a crust that I had made a few weeks ago and frozen. I baked it up but then I got nervous- what if it had a bit of freezer burn (i.e. drying out). 

So, I thawed a ball of dough that I had made and frozen and made four little tarts. I also used the leftover dough to make the peach galette in the previous post. I think putting dough in a tart pan is so much easier than putting pie crust in a pie pan. I love trimming the top to get the perfect edge!

The filling was blissfully simple: mixing cream cheese, orange zest, orange liqueur, and sugar.

I spread it in the baked tart shell...

and arranged the sliced berries, which I found to be surprisingly difficult given the variance in size of the berries. Some are petite and others are too large.

The berries were glazed with apricot jelly that was warmed and strained. I preferred this to an agar glaze. This tart turned out beautifully and the crust was perfect after all.

I finally got the hang of arranging the berries in the little tart pans. Ultimately, the best way is to put a large berry in the center- kind of like a peak. This photo of the four tarts reminds me of some plastic tarts that came with my Strawberry Shortcake dolls playset.

They were very delicious!

I think what I love most about tarts is how easy the crust is to make and how perfect it looks. The design of the tart pans is genius, as it easily lifts out without breaking. These tarts sliced very well, as the cream cheese filling was viscous enough not to run. This is the first time I have frozen my dough and used it and I found that it worked out very well. I do prefer the little tart pans. These little tarts were perfect for two or three to share but I am looking for the two-bite tart pan next.