Comments on: the great unshrinkable sweet tart shell

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:51:56 +0000

It works! I am making mini-tarts, mini-pies and mini-cheesecakes for Thanksgiving dinner and doing as much of it in advance as possible. My first batch of mini-tart shells came out perfect and are sturdy enough that I can store them, fully baked, in the freezer for the next 2 weeks. I’m not sure I’ll ever WANT to eat a pie crust again when this tastes so much better! Thanks for the recipe and tips. Now I need to figure out which of your fillings to use. Love it!

By: JS

JS — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:51:46 +0000

Woo hoo! Then it’s Tart City this weekend, and I’m the Mayor.

By: deb

deb — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:51:47 +0000

It all works out in the end. The holes always close up, or remain so pin-like, nothing leaks.

By: JS

JS — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:54:53 +0000

Maybe I’m missing something, but wouldn’t piercing the shel with a forkl cause the crust to leak if you’re using a liquid filling (say, for the maple cream tart or the raspberry brown butter tart)? Or does it all work out in the end?

By: KMont

KMont — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:27:17 +0000

Just made my 2nd tart shell today. The first from a different recipe was a complete bomb. I think the BIG thing is your neat trick – freezing the shell in the tart pan prior to baking. Worked beautifully! Will suggest this in my review of the dessert I’m making, credits to Smitten Kitchen, of course. Thanks for this recipe, it saved my sanity after working for a long time on a tart shell.

By: Ailina

Ailina — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:54:55 +0000

While i didn’t follow your directions on how to make the dough, i did follow them about how to bake it, and it turned out just perfectly! After shrinking tart shells before, this is a gem to find. Thank you so much for this recipe!

By: Megan Lock

Megan Lock — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:37:36 +0000

I’m wanting to try this tart shell, but I have a ceramic tart dish. Will it work the same and as well as your metal one?

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:07:41 +0000

Finally got around to testing this tart dough and…oh. my. goodness.

SO easy and SO delicious! I made a strawberry tart (with homemade pastry cream) for a BBQ yesterday, and all anyone could comment on was the crust! When was the last time you heard that!?

In all honesty, it shrunk a TEENY bit–but really just pulled away from the sides of the pan. The sides of the tart itself did not shrink down one iota.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up for another Smitten Kitchen winner! You can tell how much I love (and always have loved) this site by the fact that my friends say, “Is this another Smitten Kitchen recipe?” :) I’ve even gotten a handful of them hooked on Deb’s awesomeness, too.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sat, 23 May 2009 19:02:22 +0000

I made this yesterday, and only have a cuisinart mini prep food processor. It was VERY full, but with a little extra wiggling of ingredients with a knife I made it work. I also only had an 11.5 inch tart pan, and when the dough was well chilled it was a dream to roll and fit the larger pan with folded edges and literally no left over dough. It baked up perfectly. I was a little concerned about how tender it would be because I think it actually got over processed in my food processor, but its quite tender. Thanks for another great go to recipe.

By: sarah

sarah — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:13:31 +0000

Haha, I discovered a super-awesome trick! Well, I don’t know if you could call it a trick, but if you line a normal 9-inch cake pan with foil, making sure to leave some hanging out, you can just bake the tart on that, and lift the whole thing out once it’s baked. It comes out super easy, with no dishes needed to be washed, and no “fancy” tart pans need to be bought. Whoo-hoo! by the way, this crust was super easy, yummy, and totally unshrinkable.