Tarts

This is a picture of my grandparents and all ten children. My mom is the hot little blond in the front! From Left to right back row: Pa, Uncle Pazu, Uncle Twee,Aunt Rose, Aunt Jack,Uncle Russel,Aunt Marlene From left to right front row Gram, Aunt Prissy, Mom (Paula) Uncle Mark, Aunt Janie
The amazing story here is that the 6 in the back row were not "technically" my Gram's. My Grandfather was married and his first wife passed away. When he met my Gram he had 6 kids! And she married him anyway. It makes me smile though because my Grandfather was an amazing man. He was so kind, and gentle, and he was funny. He was handsome, hardworking, and compassionate. My Gram must have fell head over heels for him. And knowing my Gram and her huge heart, he must have been smitten with her. I know she loved those kids as her own. I know this because I didn't know until I was an adult that they were not. My Grammie then had 4 of her own children. My mom being one of them.

So this recipe I remember from Thanksgiving dinners at my Aunt Prissy's. She owned her own "beauty shop" off of her house. We transformed it for thanksgiving and that's where we ate our feast, right there in the shop. I loved it! One of the things I remember are these tarts. I don't remember the apple ones like my mom does I remember the chocolate cream filled ones (hmmmm I wonder why) My sister Mary also reminded me of Gram's little jello cups. They are just that,jello with whipped cream but for a kid and individual jello cup is like a crisp $100 bill. So I added a few to go with the tarts. =)

From my Mom "One of my faves! We had at Christmas & Thanksgiving."

Tarts

Ingredients

Crust (Gram made her own from scratch) but pie crust in a box is good. Do not use the ready made pie crust.

Crust Recipe:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup chilled shortening ( Gram used lard back in the day)

3 TBS ice water

Mix into ball, handle as little as possible, roll out on floured surface

Apple Jelly

Whipped topping

Maraschino cherries

Directions (as told by my Mom)

Roll out pie crust very thin. The secret to a flaky crust is too use ice water, I put ice and the water. Put pie crust mix in a bowl and very sparingly add the ice water and mix with a fork. You want the dough moist enough to roll out on a floured counter. Cut out circles with the top of a large glass. Press each piece into an un greased cupcake tin pulling the dough up the sides.. It is ok if the do not all look the same that is part of the charm. Bake until golden brown and cool completely. Add a good rounded teaspoon of apple jelly to the bottom of each tart, top with whipped topping and chill right before serving top with half a maraschino cherry. These are so simple and very delicious. At Christmas we would also use the green cherries and put the tarts on a fancy serving tray very festive. As I child I loved these more than all the holiday pies.

Here are the crust inside the muffin pan. I was unsure how they would bake, if they would be like I remembered.

Modern baking tools....ha this glass worked perfect.

Exactly how I remembered them...golden and flakey. The crust recipe is simple but perfect.

These are the tarts filled with the apple jelly. About a teapoon for each tart. I also did chocolate just using a basic pudding filling.

We all ate one and said "YUM" They brought me back in time.

I am really enjoying gathering these recipes and making them. I thought it might be therapeutic for me to remember Gram this way. But can I be totally honest. It makes me miss her so much more. And my whole family for that matter. I am remembering all the fun times we have had over the years, celebrating holidays, birthdays, graduations, babies...it's hard being so far. I miss them so much.