Bizzy's Baking Adventure

I know it's been a long time since my last post, but really, there hasn't been much of note to write about. But I've now decided to embark on a baking adventure. And I shall blog about it. I don't know how long it will last, or how often it will happen, but bake I will.

Today I started off with something simple. I made little strawberry tarts. I used my grandma's fresh fruit pie recipe, which is a big favorite in the family and always a hit at church socials. I thought I'd try something different and make little tiny tarts in my mini-muffin pan. So, first I'll post the pie recipe and then I'll share what I did.

Gram's Fresh Fruit Pie

1 1/2 quarts fresh ripe fruit, peeled and sliced if needed (peaches, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.)

3/4 cup sugar

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 baked pie shell

fresh whipped cream (don't even think of using that canned stuff or cool-whip on this pie, you might as well just go buy a frozen pie at the store, I'm serious, don't you dare)

Mash up enough fruit to make 1 1/2 cups puree, then arrange the remaining fruit in a pleasing manner in the pie shell. Make it look pretty. This is the time to let your artistic, or OCD side show through.

Thoroughly mix the cornstarch and sugar in a bowl. Bring the puree to a boil in a pan. When the puree is boiling, add the sugar mixture, cook the puree for 7 minutes or until the puree is nice and glossy and thick.

Put the pan in ice water to keep it from cooking too much and to cool it down quickly. Then carefully pour the glaze into the pie, making sure not to ruin your beautifully arranged fruit. Poke around to help the glaze get down into the fruit.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours and serve with the fresh whipped cream (it's very easy, just pour the cream into a bowl, beat it until it gets fluffy, add some sugar and a bit of vanilla and you're good to go.)

That's how you make the whole pie. Here's what I did:

First, I enlisted a helper. Ruby helped me cut out the pieces from the pie crust dough (I used a pre-made crust from Trader Joe's because I had one on hand, I'm not sure it was the best choice, it puffed up quite a bit).

Then we put the circles into the mini-muffin tin.

And baked and cooled them (see how puffy they are? Not a lot of room for strawberries). I had some extra dough at the end and made a couple in a regular-sized muffin tin, too.

Then I cut up the strawberries and put them into the shells.

And poured in the glaze. Note: If you ever try to make these on the small scale, because they're so small, it's really hard to get the glaze to go down into the berries. When I tapped the pan on the counter, the glaze in the bigger tarts did go in fairly nicely, but the little ones just stayed on top. I think it would have been a better idea to mix the glaze into the strawberries and then put them in the shells. Next time.

After their trip to the refrigerator, they each got a dollop of cream.

They were soooo good. I've always had a hard time eating a full piece of this pie, because it's very sweet and filling. But I ate a big tart and a little tart, washed it down with a glass of milk and it just hit the spot.

All in all, a definite success. I think the mini-muffin pan might be too small, though, to do it right. The regular-sized ones were a nice dessert size. With apple season upon us, I might try some apple tarts next. Or mini apple crisps. Stay tuned and you'll see!