With passion fruit curd and edible glitter, these tarts and cookies are ready to party! # 140: Tartlets & Cookies for a Crowd

Long time, no chat! Between moving and prepping treats for my friend’s wedding, it’s been a little hectic. It’s amazing how much time and energy a move takes, but we’re nearly there. Silly me decided to build some bookshelves instead of buy them, so the projects never really end! And our couch is still backordered… but good things come to those who wait, right?

One of the biggest things that I’ve taken away from this experience is confirmation that I shouldn’t have a baking side hustle. It’s just too stressful! I so much prefer making things for people I love (and let’s be honest, for myself) on a smaller scale. But I have to admit, it felt AMAZING to drop off the rows and rows of matching tarts and cookies. The pride was running as high as the stress from the bumpy drive to the venue. I’ve since heard that people liked them, yay! To be even a small part of someone’s special day is truly magical.

The wedding gave me a fabulous excuse to buy mini fluted tart molds. They are so cute, and the tart shells they turn out look like dainty lil flowers. I usually make thicker tart shells since I looove pastry, but I promise I’ll test out paper-thin tart shells with these adorable molds.

It’s a delightfully easy crust! Only 5 ingredients, and you can omit the sugar and add in whatever spices for a savory version. Side note – I still use salted and unsalted butter interchangeably. I know that unsalted is better so you can guarantee that the butter is fresher, but I go through so much of it that I buy anything on sale now!

Happy lil dough.

It dough-sn’t need to be chilled for a long time either so it’s really truly the best. Fifteen minutes in the fridge and voila! I’ve taken to wrapping dough in parchment paper to chill so I can reuse it to bake cookies, etc. More environmentally friendly than plastic wrap and super easy switch to make. I can usually get 3 or 4 uses out of one piece of parchment paper! Try and beat that record, I dare ya.

My first attempt was before I bought the molds. So much potential with the mini muffin tin.

Just Jan’s jars make the perfect dough-squishers. Just make sure to flour the bottom so you don’t rip the dough.

Wasn’t terribly impressed with the results – they were all uneven and I really really wanted consistency for this event.

My first attempt at using them ended poorly – no matter how much flour I put on the top mold, it ripped the dough when I tried to remove it. I resorted to the trusty method of shaping the dough in the mold with my floured thumbs.

Success! Plus adding holes to it so it doesn’t puff up mid-bake.

And a light egg wash to seal them! The magic trick for being able to fill them with cream and now have them turn soggy. Pop them in the freezer for 10 minutes to solidify the butter and off we go!

Lookee that definition! I’m in love. I know these molds break my no-single-use kitchen tools but they bring me so much joy they are an exception.

This tester set were filled with tiramisu cream (I eyeballed a mixture of mascarpone, heavy cream, cocoa powder, espresso powder and sugar) and it was delightful.

For the wedding tarts, I went with a passion fruit and whip cream filling and a chocolate mascarpone cream filling. I made a veritable vat of passion fruit curd (shout out to Heidi’s prolific passion fruit vines!) and froze the rest. Definitely my fav type of fruit curd and it freezes beautifully. Can’t get any better than that! See my eclair post for details on the curd.

Curd: check! They look like lil egg yolks.

All dressed up and ready to go.

And the triumphant return of the orange cardamom cookie recipe from Sweet Ambs! Truly the best sugar cookie I’ve ever made or eaten. Plus the dough is magical and can be made and frozen ahead of time.

I made a simple glaze with the smallest hint of pink and yellow food coloring for some pizazz. My mom had a brilliant addition – melted butter! It resolidifies once it cools so it helps give the glaze a sheen.

Ooo, aaaah.

I broke out the edible glitter and a sterilized paintbrush and bedazzled these beauties.

Happy munching!

Magical and simple tart shell recipe: https://shanissweetart.com/recipe/beautiful-mini-tartlet-shells/