Lemon curd raspberry tart

Photo by HMN Photography

I really enjoy my time in the kitchen, whether it's cooking dinner or baking something sweet over the weekend, but I've never ventured into pie / tart territory. Something about the crust, blind baking, and filling always seemed too overwhelming. For a friend's BBQ I wanted to make something fruity and fresh, but couldn't find a cookie recipe that fit the bill. Again I was faced with my crust fears and found only tart recipes that were summery enough for the afternoon meal. After following this easy recipe for crust I started to gain a little confidence that my tart skills were ready to be discovered. The filling came together easily and the meticulous placement of each raspberry was actually a very enjoyable task (I didn't even want to go out that night because assembling my tart sounded like more fun). Once arranged I found myself ecstatically jumping through my home exclaiming that my first tart was ready! The bright lemon flavor and slight tang of the raspberries worked perfectly with the flaky crust and because of the two disks of dough waiting for me in the freezer my baking adventures just expanded a bit. The crust recipe will leave you with enough dough to make a few tarts (I used this recipe rather than the one from the original). To fill and assemble, I followed this recipe, but left off the jam glaze on the raspberries. Something about a glossy thick gel on a pie always sounds pretty gross to me.