I'm a Tart, You're a Tart

Eat a tart.

It doesn't have to be pretty, big, or take all night. In fact, this tart's juicy, cheap and easy going down.

It all started with the strawberries, on sale, at Whole Foods. Organic strawberries, from this coast, on sale! After a winter's worth of kale and yams, those ruby gems sailed into my cart with visions of summer and the sharp, green smell of berry vines hot in the sun. Strawberries aren't my favorite summer berry, but they are beautiful and sweet, and the shocking accumulation of black bananas in our freezer tells me we're due for a change in fruitage.

But I couldn't leave well enough alone. After 1 day of fresh strawberry snacking I was hit by a pang to do something with them. I tried to ignore the pang by grading reading journals, but the berries called to me like seeded sirens--a song made more persuasive by the asinine quality of student comments, like the following, which made me question why I bother:
"I have never had, nor taken any interest in America, especially politics."
Note the redundant phrasing. Note the apathy. Feed this child to the Kracken.


After ten of those, messing around with butter, flour and fruit sounded downright stimulating. I did some food blogging research and found an easy recipe at The Kitchen Sink for a rustic, low-fat strawberry tart.

Hey, I was dubious about the "low-fat," too. But it turns out that you can make a flaky crust with half the butter. Is it as delicious? I'm not going to lie--probably not. But I felt a little better about eating it and now you can, too.

Rustic Strawberry Tart: adapted somewhat freely from The Kitchen Sink (serves 4)

• 1 C flour
• 3 T cold as ice butter, in pieces, Plus a little extra for dotting on top of the tart
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3-5 T ice water (I needed 5)
• 2-3 handfuls of strawberries
• 1/4 tsp almond extract (or lemon/lime/orange zest or liqueur)
• 1/8 C sugar or more, depending on your sweet tooth
• 1-2 T cornstarch
• a bit of heavy cream to wash the dough before baking

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter a cookie sheet (or use parchment).
2. Dump the flour and salt into a bowl. Add butter and cut into the flour using two knives, a pastry cutter, or your fingers. You want to the butter-flour mixture to resemble rough cornmeal, with a few pea-sized butter lumps.
3. Drizzle 3 T of ice water into the bowl, adding just enough to dampen the dough and allow it to come together in a rough ball. Add more water if needed.
4. Turn the dough out of the bowl, and knead just a few times so that it coalesces in a decent ball. Place the ball between two sheets of plastic wrap, and roll into a nice disk. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, toss sliced strawberries with almond extract, sugar and cornstarch.
6. When the dough is ready, roll it into one or more rough rounds. Layer the strawberry slices (working in concentric circles), leaving 1-2 inches of bare dough on the ends.*
7. Fold the sides of the circle up around the strawberries (forming a bowl), pinching where necessary to hold the shape. Brush the sides with cream.
8. Dot a bit of butter on top of the strawberries, and sprinkle the whole pastry with sugar.
9. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.

*I left 2 inches, as per the original instructions, and felt upon tasting that I had too much pastry on the top of the tart.