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Mini Raspberry Tarts

How to Make Mini Raspberry Tarts in flower shaped crust lizbushong.com

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Light and flaky sweet shortbread crusts that look like flowers filled with cream cheese frosting and single raspberry makes cute Mini Raspberry Tarts  For a special treat, put a layer of lemon curd in tart shell then add filling.

Ingredients

Scale

Shortbread Tart Crust

11/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 stick or 4 ounces of butter, shredded and frozen

3 tablespoons ice water

Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 tablespoons softened butter, not margarine

2 cups confectioners sugar

1/41/2 teaspoon vanilla- to taste

12 teaspoons milk or cream

Optional: Purchased or home-made microwave lemon curd.

Garnish

20 fresh raspberries or fruit of choice

Instructions

Crust

1. In bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade, add dry ingredients, flour, sugar, salt. Pulse 3 seconds.

2. Add frozen shredded butter, not margarine to processor bowl. Pulse 3-4 seconds.

3. Add exactly 3 tablespoons ice cold water, pulse until mixture turns to crumbles, then forms soft ball around bowl. Remove dough ball and flatten into a round disc. Wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap. Chill 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray the back side of a mini cupcake pan with cooking spray.  Spray every other back side of muffin cup as you will be placing the dough rounds on every other cup instead of side by side. You need space for the tart edges to form the flower shape. 

 5.Sprinkle work surface with confectioners sugar, and with rolling pin, roll out chilled dough. If dough cracks, allow dough to warm up a bit, and roll into 1/8″ thickness. 

6. With a scalloped edge round cookie cutter, cut out mini tart shells. Place dough round on the prepared mini muffin pan allowing the decorative edge to be shaped snuggly around the raised muffin cup. With a fork prick the tart’s bottom two -three times. 

7. Place tarts in refrigerator to chill about 8 minutes just to help firm up before baking.

8. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5-7 minutes before removing from pan. You can take a sharp knife tip and release the shell from the pan if necessary.  Allow shells to completely cool before adding filling.

Filling

1.In medium mixing bowl, add softened cream cheese & butter. Whip on medium speed with hand held mixer until mixture is creamy and smooth. 

2.Add confectioners sugar one cup at a time. Add extract and cream, mix until blended and smooth. 

3.Filling will be medium thickness so you can pipe it into a pretty shape. Optional, you can add 1/2 teaspoon lemon curd to crust before piping the creamy filling. 

To pipe into shells

Fit disposable piping bag with tip # 1 M or 2 D, large shell design. Fill with the cream cheese filling and pipe into cool tart shells.  Add one fresh raspberry to each tart or fruit of choice. Chill until serving time. Recipe makes 20 -2″ flower shaped tarts.

Notes

  • Tart shells can be made ahead and frozen until ready to fill and serve. Place in ziplock baggie and freeze.
  • Filling can also be made ahead and placed in piping bag with tip, right before serving fill tart shells.
  • Allow filling to come to room temperature for easier piping. 
  • Filled Tarts will chill in refrigerator up to 2 days. Store covered in refrigerator.

If you want to make one large tart, use a 9″ round fluted tart pan with removable bottom for best results and bake 12-15 minutes until crust is baked, prick crust with fork before filling and use dried beans or pie weights to keep crust from losing shape during baking. Chill after baking before filling.

Spreading a little bit of lemon curd before adding the creamy filling adds another depth of flavor.