Sunday, December 6, 2009

Smokey Maid of Honor Tarts


As I continue on my quest to be the self proclaimed "King of Tarts" I have stumbled upon a real gem.

I had asked the keeper of the sacred book for a raisin pie filling recipe to bang out a quick batch of raisin tarts and she responded by forwarding several jewels in the tart makers crown.

There was the raisin filling as requested and a pecan classic as well as a tart that had been a favorite of mine from way back. So far back that I had forgotten about it entirely. The thing is with food that your mind has a way of dredging up the sensations and forgotten memories as soon as you pop it into the oven.

I used the original recipe and it was strangely spot on. Typically I would have to do a few test batches to get it just right but this one was pretty good. The quantity is a bit off if you use a muffin bottom size tart, but if you use the half muffin size the whole thing comes together.
I don't know about the spoon sizes for the filling, I suspect it was a half dollop of raspberry jam and a full dolop of custard/coconut filling. The times and temps are subject to the verities of altitude and elctric vs gas ovens. I started with a hot 425'f oven for 5 mi. and then brought it down to 375'f ish to finish. Total time 20 min.

Now here is where it gets interesting. I substituted brown sugar for the white one for one.
Why? I like the molasses flavor of the brown sugar and after making 5 batches the regular way
I thought they were too sweet. I also found out that you need to get the high end Brtish or Irish
jam it makes a huge difference in the tartness. And to make them smokey I used 1/2 jam 1/2 raspberry chipotle barbecue sauce. Out to lunch? I won't go on for pages about how good it is.

I have been using easy to make crust recipe. As an alternative you can get a chilled box of pie crust from the dairy section of your supermarket.
Enjoy BW