Home-cooking: Recipe for Valentine’s Cherry Tarts

The cute heart-shaped tarts I posted on V-day were something I made for Hitman.  The recipe’s from one of my all-time favorite blogs The Art of Doing Stuff authored by the uber hilarious Karen.  She is always so funny and witty.  Take a peek at one of my favorite posts from her and tell me you did not just blow milk (or anything) out of your nose when you get to the picture of her holding the potato.

Anyways I came across this post from her last year and it’s an easy-peasy recipe (it’s really not even a recipe…more an assembly job) for the cutest, loveliest mini heart shaped cherry tarts.

Ingredients:

• Pre-made tart shells (I used No-Name brand…they were really good)
• Cherry Pie Filling

I used the 3″ tart shells, not the mini kind.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. Take shells out and let them thaw a bit (about 3 minutes) so that they’re malleable.

3. Dent the foil and gently mold each shell into a heart shape.  Then fill with the pie filling.

Karen suggests putting the cherries in first then top with the filling.  3 cherries each should be sufficient.  Don’t over fill or else the filling will bubble over and your tartlets won’t be pretty anymore =P

4. Then ala Karen, I rolled out a few of the shells, then cut out some mini heart shapes to place on top of the tarts.  I also tried making a lattice on two of them.  That took a while….
5. Bake for 20 minutes but keep an eye on them.  I wanted them to brown really nicely so I
   actually turned oven temperature up to 400°F.  But again, keep an eye on them.  They
   should be done when you start to smell butter.

According to Karen the whole process takes less than hour.  It for sure took me a bit longer due to my OCD tendencies I had to make them look as perfect as possible.

The No-Name brand unsweetened tart shells were really good.  The bottom of the tarts baked nicely and didn’t turn out doughy or soggy.  Needless to say these were a hit with Hitman, his coworkers, and my coworkers.  They look like a lot of work but they really aren’t!

So for your next Valentine’s give these a try!!!  And of course you can use any filling you want…even jam will work!!

Summary

Recipe Name

Valentine's Cherry Tarts

Published On

2013-02-17

Preparation Time

40M

Cook Time

20M

Total Time

1H

Average Rating

4 Based on 5 Review(s)