How did I end up making such a wonderful homemade strawberry tart? Let’s start with a little backstory. Last year we planted some strawberry plants in our garden. I think we got about 3 strawberries before the birds discovered them and despite the elaborate fence-like contraption that I built to cover the strawberries, we did not get many for us to eat. This year, after some research, we picked up some inexpensive bird netting and saw much better results. The birds were able to pick at a few berries along the edges, but the vast majority of our berries were safe. From the birds, at least.
Fun fact, strawberries love to reproduce! And the 20 or so plants that we put in last year are probably closer to 30-40 this year, and they are huge. At first it was just a few strawberries here and there. But, then it was a full on strawberry assault. My better half and I would go out and pick a couple quarts at a time and we were being selective – if it wasn’t bright red and perfectly ripe it was to be left. Until tomorrow, that is……. Now, there are worse things than a seemingly never ending supply of strawberries. But despite our best efforts we had some berries that did not get used before they reached the point of no return.
I had the day off today and there was solid quart of strawberries sitting in our basket on the counter. They were ripe, I was determined not to let them lay to waste. Plus, we have a few pints of last year’s strawberry jam that was left over that I could add to the berries to do something with them. Then, I had an idea – make a shortbread crust and use the mini muffin pan for perfect homemade strawberry tart.
I chopped the strawberries and then armed myself with a simple, yet delicious, shortbread crust recipe and set to it. Turns out, I had more strawberries than I expected, so I had to to make another half batch of shortbread crust and used it in our mini tart pans to use up the berries. Next, I thought about how vanilla/almond flavor goes well with strawberries so I mixed up a batch of a sour cream based glaze. This concoction would either be epic, or would be a HO-scale train wreck. Thankfully when the confectioners sugar and flour dust settled, something amazing emerged. I had never made a homemade strawberry tart, but I had now and it was terrific.
I would say that I went from start to finish I had homemade strawberry tart in less than an hour. That includes chopping the berries and par-baking the shortbread and baking the homemade strawberry tart. It was easy enough for anyone to do.
- 1-1/2 cup flour
- 1-1/2 sticks softened butter
- ¾ cup confectioners sugar
- 1 quart fresh strawberries
- 2 tbsp flour
- ½ cup strawberry jam
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- Prepare the crust:
- Combine flour and confectioners sugar
- Using stand mixer with paddle attachment or hand mixer with beaters, gradually add flour/confectioners sugar mixture with softened butter. Mix until you get coarse crumbs.
- Press crust mixture into tart pans or mini muffin tins.
- Bake for 12 minutes.
- While the crust is par-baking, chop the strawberries.
- Mix in jam and flour and mix throughly
- Spoon the strawberry mixture into the partially cooked tart crusts.
- Bake for an additional 15-35 minutes (15 for mini muffin sized, 35 for larger tart pans)
- Tarts are done when the crust has browned and the strawberry mixture is starting to brown. Be careful not to burn.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool.
- Mix the glaze, add the vanilla and almond extract to the confectioners sugar and then whisk while gradually adding the sour cream.
- Drizzle the tarts once they are coold
