Tarts and Turnovers

Thumbing through Fine Cooking issue no. 79, I found an article on berry desserts that I had passed over and forgotten. The article incudes a butter dough recipe that you can use to make a few different desserts. One suggestion is a fruit tart using the dough for the shell and a mix of lemon curd folded into whipped cream for the filling. The tart is finished with fresh berries. You could use this dough to make eight little lovely tarts.


Another possibility with the dough is it to use it to make hand pies or what FC editors dubbed "Rustic Raspberry Turnovers." If you use the dough for this recipe, it will give you 12 turnovers, maybe more with scraps rerolled.



I, feeling especially frisky one recent afternoon, decided to try both recipes by making just two tarts and using the rest of the dough to make turnovers. This Buttery Shortbread Pastry Dough is delicious and worked really well for both recipes. The little turnovers are made from circles, 4 inches in diameter. You can only fit 3 or 4 sugared raspberries in them (5-6 blueberries, I made some of both.) The crust is like a flaky cookie, and the bright tart berries play off its buttery sweetness. These were great for a few days, just sitting on the counter. Dear husband took them to work for a snack.

As for the fruit tarts, the lemon curd/whipped cream was a revelation. I loved it with the berries and it was so easy using jarred lemon curd. You could easily have the tart shells and the lemon whipped cream made in advance and assemble these tarts right before you need them. Also I think children would enjoy assembling them, spooning in the cream and decorating with berries. And the shells are sturdy enough that you wouldn't need to worry about them breaking.

Buttery Shortbread Pastry Dough

yields enough for 1 single pie crust, 8 mini tarts, or 12 turnovers

9 oz. (2 cups) all-purpose flour
7 oz. (14 T) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 T granulated sugar
1 T chilled heavy cream
2 t fresh lemon juice
1 t table salt

In a food processor, combine the flour, butter, egg, sugar, cream, lemon juice, and salt and pulse until the dough starts gathering together in big clumps. Turn the dough out onto a counter and gather it together. Shape the dough as needed