Tea Time Tarts

I posted about English tarts once in the very early days of this blog and at that time I only did a few jam tarts.  I can't imagine what took me so long to post about some more wonderful tarts using my grandmother's recipes.  One is for Maids of Honor and the other is for Coconut Cheesecakes.  Not sure why they're called cheesecakes as there is not a speck of cheese in them.  As I mentioned in my first blog on the subject of tarts, my grandma always had a tin of tarts when we came to visit and the Maids of Honor (or Honour in England) were my favorite.  It tickles me to no end to be able to make these using her recipes and have them turn out so well.  I thought of her fondly as I set some out on my Old English Rose china serving plate to serve to my friends. 

Making all of these tarts in one cooking event may seem daunting, but if you do a little organizing, it doesn't take long at all.  I put the dough together the day before and stuck it in the refrigerator.  The next day I just had to roll and cut it out for the tart tins.  Putting together the two batters is very quick and then it's just a matter of putting together the tarts and baking them.  With the leftover dough, I always make some plain jam tarts. Not only are they tasty, but they perk up the serving plate with some color.  It took me a total of 1 1/2 hours to make 3 dozen tarts. Not a huge time commitment. These freeze very well, by the way.

English Tea Tarts

Pastry

3 Tbsp cold butter, cut in small cubes
2 Tbsp cold Crisco, cut in small cubes
1 cup all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
2-4 Tbsp ice water

In a food processor or with a pastry cutter, cut the butter and Crisco in with the flour and salt until pea size clumps appear.  Add water, 1 Tbsp at at time until mixture forms a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.  Makes 16 tarts.

Coconut Cheesecakes
(makes 12 tarts)

3 Tbsp softened butter
2/3 cup fine coconut
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp rice flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder

Cream butter, sugar and egg together.  Add rest of the ingrediants and mix. Line the tart tins with pastry.   Put a dab of any flavor jam or lemon curd on the bottom of the pastry. Add the filling over the jam.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Let sit in tart tin for 5 min. then remove onto cooling rack.

Maids of Honor
(makes 12 tarts)

1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
1 egg
2 tsp. ground almonds
1/8 tsp almond extract of vanilla extract

Cream butter, sugar and egg.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.  Line the tart tins with pastry. Put a dab of any flavor jam (cherry is very good) on the bottom of the pastry. Add the filling over the jam.  bake at 400 degress for 20 min. or until golden brown.  Let sit in tart tin for 5 min. then remove onto cooling rack.  Mix together powder sugar, a few drops of water and a few drops of vanilla to make a thick glaze.  When tarts are cool, put a small spoonful of glaze on tops of tarts and let set.

Jam Tarts

Fill empty tart pastry with any flavor jam. Do not overfill or you will have a mess to clean up!  Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Let set in tin for 5 min. then remove and let cool completely.

Cornish Pasties

I seem to be on a British cooking kick lately. I just love to cook things knowing I am keeping up the tradition of recipes that were made my grandmother, great grandmothers, and beyond. I am lucky to have the luxury of modern conveniences such as an electric oven, big powerful mixers and food processors. I can't imagine what it must have been like to have to do everything by hand and then try to cook with a wood burning oven.

Cornish pasties were traditionally made for Cornish miners to take with them down into the mines. They were made with a sturdy crust filled with meat and veggies, everything in a nice, tidy package that the men could stick in their pockets and have for lunch. I made mine with a lard/butter crust which is what I found on an English website on the subject. I imagine that suet or bacon fat could also be used or a combination of vegetable shortening and butter. A cardiologist's nightmare. My crust was so easy to handle. It rolled out like a charm and was ever so flaky. A crust success!!

Also, apparently carrots are a no-no in a traditional Cornish pasty. Turnips are the veggie de rigueur. Well, I had no turnips so carrots made their way into my recipe. I think parsnips or perhaps even a little butternut squash cut into small little cubes would be delicious. There was leftover filling which when sauteed, made a great hash for breakfast.

Cornish Pasties

(Makes 7 pasties)

Crust

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup cold lard, cut into small cubes

1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes

3/4 cup ice water

Mix dry ingredients into a bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add ice water a little at a time, tossing with a fork to make a pastry-like dough. Add a bit more water if it seems dry. Dough should hold together when squeezed lightly. Gather into two balls, press firmly, then wrap with plastic wrap and chill while preparing the pasty filling. I made mine the night before so it was well chilled when I was ready to make the pasties.

Filling

1 lb. bottom round steak cut into small, bite sized pieces

2 Yukon gold potatoes, cut into a small dice

1 carrot, cut into a small dice

1/2 cup diced onion

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp dried thyme

3-4 shakes Worcestershire sauceMix all of the filling ingredients together well and let sit for 15 minutes.Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it's approximately 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 6 inch circles. Place circles of dough onto a parchment covered baking sheet. Put approximately 1/3 cup of filling in the middle of the circle. With water, wet 1/2 of the circle's edge with water. Fold the other half of the circle over the filling and press tightly around the edge and then turn the edge over itself to completely seal so no filling leaks out while baking. Brush each pasty with an egg wash (1 beaten egg with a little water or cream), make a 1 inch slit in the top of each pastie to let steam escape while cooking.Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes then turn down oven to 325 degrees and bake for another 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

Grandma's Tarts

My English grandma always had a large decorative tin of tarts ready for us when we came to visit. There were of maids of honor (so named by King Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn who was a lady in waiting to his first wife Katherine of Aragon), coconut tarts, and jam and lemon curd filled tarts, with each layer separated in the tin by wax paper. It was such a treat to sit at my grandparents dining room table with cups of tea and the delicious tarts. My mother also made tarts, but with her busy schedule it was usually at Christmas or at times when she baked a pie she would make jam tarts with the leftover pie dough.

I am very pleased that I was able to get my grandma's recipes for her various tarts and I try to make them at least once a year. When finished, I too always put them in my favorite tin which is decorated with tart pictures and the poem about the Queen of Hearts and her tarts. I hope my nieces will learn how to make them as it would be a shame for those traditional recipes to be lost.

Since I made my gloriously successful berry pie, I decided to throw together a few jam tarts with my leftover pie dough. I was able to do so primarily because The Husband was at work and not stealing and eating the raw dough before I can get to the rest of my baking.

Above: Tarts ready for baking.

For these tarts there is no recipe other than taking leftover dough, rolling it out and cutting into circles to fit the muffin tin, filling each tart with approximately 1 teaspoon of a jam, jelly, or lemon curd and baking at 350 degrees for approximately 12 minutes until crusts are light brown. Let tarts cool in tin for 10 minutes or so, until jam sets then remove and cool them on a rack.

Above: Tarts baked and ready for their special tin.

A Strumpet's Crumpets

My love of crumpets goes back many years to childhood and family vacations to British Columbia where my English great aunties Trot and Don lived.

My first actual recollections of crumpets is from a trip to Victoria with my grandparents where we stayed in a motel called the Gorge Motel which had kitchenettes. With five children, I'm sure cooking some meals was a financial necessity for my parents and what treats we had in this "foreign" country.

My mom would purchase wonderful crumpets which were so unusual to me with their many tiny holes and spongy texture; a perfect vehicle for the melting butter and jams or treacle to sink into. Once toasted and topping of choice is applied, you take a bite and the warm butter oozes out along with the sweet topping. Heaven.

While living in downtown Seattle for 11 years, I often would get up bright and early and saunter down the hill to do some weekly shopping at Pike Place Market. I would first stop for breakfast at the Crumpet Shop on First Street. Being a creature of habit, I always ordered a toasted crumpet with a dollop of ricotta cheese and topped with raspberry jam and coffee. I am happy to see that this wonderful little shop has remained open over the years and stop by whenever I am in town to pick up a 6-pack of their fresh crumpets.

Over the years I have attempted to make them a few times. As a teen I remember finding a recipe somewhere and I diligently saved the family's tuna cans to use as molds. Alas, I don't recall the results but since I didn't attempt again for many years, they must not have turned out very well.

Today I found a recipe in a cookbook called English Traditional Recipes - A Heritage of Food and Cooking by Annette Yates. It has very thorough recipes and gorgeous pictures. I became inspired to try out the crumpet recipe and they turned out fantastically, if I do say so myself. I have moved up in the mold department from the tuna cans of yesteryear and actually found these muffin rings at a cooking store here in town. They were very reasonably priced at $4.75 for four. At the price of food right now, four cans of tuna probably would cost more!

CRUMPETS

(Adapted from English Traditional Recipes by Annette Yates)
2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp fast action yeast granules

2/3 cups milk

1 cup water

oil for greasing rings and skillet

Combine flour, salt, and soda in a medium bowl and whisk ingredients together to sift. Mix yeast into flour mixture. Warm milk and water together until lukewarm. Pour into flour mixture and whisk vigorously to make a thick, smooth batter. Cover and leave in warm place for 1 hour until mixture has a spongy texture.

Heat a griddle and lightly oil the surface and the inside of each of the metal rings then heat the rings for 1-2 minutes until hot. Spoon the batter into the rings to the depth of approximately 1/2 inch. Cook over medium-high heat for about 6 minutes until the top surface is set and bubbles have burst open to make holes.

When set, carefully lift the rings off, flip the crumpets and cook for another minute or so until lightly browned. This recipe made 9 crumpets.

Lift them off and cool completely on a wire rack. Toast the crumpet until heated through, add the toppings of your choice, eat immediately and think of England!