Strawberry Crown Tart

This is the recipe I used for Tory's birthday.  It was so good.  I love the hint of lemon in the filling and the red current jelly glaze and the crust tastes like shortbread.  For the birthday tart I put fresh blueberries and strawberries on top.  I recently was asked to make 150 servings of my favorite dessert for a women's conference for my church.  I decided to make this recipe.  I just doubled the crust and filling recipes and baked them in a sheet cake pan instead of a tart pan.  When they were done baking I cut them out to 1-1/2 inch diameter circles.  After they had cooled I dusted them with powdered sugar and placed half of a strawberry (cut side down) on each one and then glazed them.  Unfortunately I didn't get a single picture of the finished tarts.  That's too bad because when am I ever going to make 150 tarts again?  Just to give you an idea of how many there were, they were stacked side-by-side on a board that was 2 feet wide and 5 feet long!  It barely fit into the back seat of my car.  Wow!  Now that's a lot of tarts!  This tart is so easy to make and looks special.  Great to make when strawberries are in season!

Strawberry Crown Tart

FOR THE CRUST

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for handling dough

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

FOR THE FILLING

2 larg eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted and cooled
1/3 cup melted currant jelly
2 pint baskets fresh strawberries, stemmed

powdered sugar for garnish

Make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, blend flour, butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt until moist crumbs form (this may take up to 1 minute). Transfer dough to a 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom.

With floured fingers, press dough evenly into pan and up sides. Dip a dry-measuring cup in flour, and use it to press dough firmly into bottom and against sides of pan. Freeze crust until firm, 10 to 15 minutes.  (I skipped this step.)

Using a fork, prick crust all over. Bake until golden, 10-15 minutes, pressing down gently once or twice with a spoon during baking if crust puffs up.

Make the filling:  In mixer bowl beat eggs, sugar, lemon juice, peel and vanilla until thick and pale, about 10 minutes. Gently fold in one-third of the flour, then one-third of the butter. Continue folding in, alternating flour and butter until all has been incorporated. Do not over mix.

Brush bottom of tart shell with some of the jelly. Slice about 1/2 basket of the strawberries and arrange over jelly. Pour batter over strawberries (it will not quite cover).

Bake in 375°F oven 20 minutes until golden and filling is set. Cool on rack.

Dust with powdered sugar.  Arrange remaining whole strawberries, stem ends down, on top of tart. Brush with remaining melted jelly.

Makes 8 servings.