Smorgasbord Special Butter Tarts Recipes

Steps:

• Make the pastry: In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, rub butter or lard into flour until mixture is in pea-size pieces.
• In a small bowl, mix water, egg yolk and vinegar until well combined. Add liquid to the flour mixture, using a fork to combine. Add 1 tablespoon more water if it looks dry.
• Knead dough several times by hand to bring it together and shape into a flat square. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• Once chilled, roll out the dough into a 16-inch-by-12-inch (40.5 centimeters by 30.5 centimeters) rectangle about 1/8- to 1/4-inch (3 to 6 millimeters) thick. Flour the work surface and rolling pin as you work with the dough.
• Use a circular 4-inch (10 centimeter) cookie cutter (or a clean 28-ounce/496 milliliter can) to cut 12 pieces. Reroll dough if needed to cut more circles, but try to cut as many pieces on the first pass. With your fingertips, press each circle into the cup of a standard muffin tin, so that the edge of the dough is flush with the pan. Refrigerate while while you make the filling.
• In a bowl, cover raisins with hot tap water to plump. Heat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Make the filling: In a bowl, mix brown sugar and salt, and then beat the butter into the sugar by hand until smooth. Add vanilla and egg and mix until combined. Do not use an electric mixer; it will add too much air to the filling.
• Drain the raisins and place seven or eight raisins in each chilled tart shell.
• Divide the filling evenly among the tart shells, filling each one about halfway. Place muffin tin on a baking sheet. Bake 13 to 15 minutes for a runnier tart and 17 to 19 minutes for a firmer one.
• A few minutes after removing the tarts from the oven, run a knife or offset spatula around the edge of each tart to loosen. Let cool completely in the tin. To remove, run a butter knife or offset spatula around and under each tart to pop it out of the tin.

Steps:

• Pour boiling water over currants and let sit for 10 minutes. Drain. Place currants on paper towel to absorb extra water. Place about 1 teaspoon currants in each tart shell.
• Combine butter, cream, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and lemon juice until mixed. Mixture will have bits of butter remaining and will looked curdled --- this is normal. Pour about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of filling over currants in each tart.
• Bake at 400F for about 15 minutes.
• (If making 2-inch tarts use about 1/2 teaspoons of currants and 2 to 3 tsps. of filling per tart).

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Place tart shells on a baking sheet.
• Whisk brown sugar, butter, and vanilla extract together in a bowl; whisk in egg until smooth. Stir half-and-half into sugar mixture. Fill prepared tart shells 2/3-full with filling.
• Bake in the preheated oven until filling is bubbly and pastry is golden, about 15 minutes.

Steps:

• Butter each slice of bread you want to use then proceed with ingredients for any one of the options below:.
• Salami and tomato - cover the bread with slices of salami. Add slices of tomato and some onion rings.
• Prawns and lemon - put a lettuce leaf onto the bread. Spoon prawns on top and add some black pepper and a twisted slice of lemon.
• Blue cheese and lettuce - cover the bread with lettuce and thin slices of blue cheese. Sprinkle cress on top.
• Cheese and tomato - lay thin slices of Havarti cheese on the bread. Then, lay a row of sliced tomato along the middle. Add a gherkin garnish.
• Smoked salmon and egg - cover the bread with slices of hard-boiled egg and smoked salmon. Sprinkle it with chopped dill.
• Lettuce, egg and herring - lay slices of hard-boiled egg and fillet of pickled herring on the bread. Sprinkle it with cress.
• Garnishes:.
• Cut a slice of lemon in half. Make a cut in the middle of each half, then twist the ends so that the slice stands up.
• Make thin cuts along the length of a gherkin, cutting almost to the end. Then, spread the slices out like a fan.