a strawberry tart with sweet crust.

Since strawberry season is coming to an end, I am trying to use them as much as I can while they are still sweet and inexpensive. I realized yesterday that, although I had talked and talked about making one, I still had yet to make a strawberry tart this season. So, after finding that I had a huge container in our fridge filled with very ripe strawberries, I figured that this would be as great a time as any to make one.

I still had half a jar of the berry jam that needed to be used up soon (freezer jam has a shelf-life of about 3-4 weeks), so I chose to go for a jam & strawberry tart that is made with a crust that tastes just like a huge butter cookie (oh buttery sweets, how do I love thee?). The tart is made with fresh, unbaked strawberries, which is just how I like them. This would make an excellent party or potluck dessert, since it's rather large (8 by 14 inches) and quite beautiful.

(Alice so nicely helped with the crimping)

Sweet Pastry Crust: from Good Housekeeping: Bake It! Cookbook

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter or margarine (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl, with a mixer at low speed, beat butter with sugar until blended. Increase speed to high; beat until light and creamy, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to medium; beat in egg and vanilla until blended. At low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until dough begins to form. With hands, press dough together; shape into a small rectangle.
On large cookie sheet, with floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 14" by 8" rectangle (placing a damn towel under the cookie sheet will help prevent cookie sheet from moving). With fingers, gently crimp edges of rectangle to form a decorative border. With fork, prick crust at 1/2-inch intervals to prevent puffing and shrinking during baking.
Bake until golden, 20 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet on wire rack.





Strawberries and Jam Tart

2/3 cup berry jam of your choice
Sweet Pastry Crust (see above), cooled
About 4 cups of strawberries, each cut lengthwise in half

In a small saucepan, melt jam over medium heat, stirring often. Remove from heat.
Reserve 2 tablespoons of jam mixture; brush remaining mixture over cooled crust. Arrange berries decoratively over jam-glazed crust; drizzle with reserved jam mixture. If not serving right away, refrigerate.