Things have not been going tremendously well in the “time management” department these days … that is to say, “real life” has been so busy, that Cup of Sugar :: Pinch of Salt has taken a bit of a back burner (no pun intended). It’s overall tremendously frustrating, that. But in an attempt to make myself feel better, and it’s a misty miserable morning, I made these mini-pies, aka breakfast strudels. Pie for breakfast: always a cure all.
I’ve been working on perfecting some “from scratch” and quick lunch recipes. This one is almost from scratch (meaning, I used puff pastry so that was store bought, but everything else was from scratch). A little less than 40 minutes from “still in the fridge” (though you do need to take out the puff from the freezer) to “completely devoured”. Plus that includes the photography time. I did burn my mouth though from one of the tomatoes bursting. I probably should have waiting a few more minutes before eating, but I was hungry.
This is a great tart for this time of the year when cherry tomatoes are so plentiful in the garden and at the farmer’s markets, but actually can be made year round because cherry toms are reliably decent even at other times of the year.
Spoon sized (mini-muffin tin) little tarts are my “go to thing” when I have leftover pie dough — and goodness knows that I often have leftover pie dough! When it is a “last minute” thing, I just spoon in spoonfuls of jam (which I also usually have a lot of), but this time, because I had so many lovely blueberries from Maine in the kitchen, I decided to make these from scratch. Perfect bite size. And totally addictive; perhaps even more so than a full sized version, because you can pop a whole little one mouth with no drip from the super juicy berries. Store bought lemon curd, mini-mint sprigs from my garden. Perfect for my afternoon “Kaffeetrinken”.
I was up in Maine for the weekend (again, I know… it happens a lot in the summer), and right around August 1st, the blueberries are ready for raking. I prefer the Maine Wild Blues by leaps and bounds over cultivated ones — smaller, sweeter, bluer. And there is something about seeing the rocky fields just bursting with the color that makes it so wonderful Now I have a lot of blueberries. Some will be frozen, but I’m starting by making this pie for dessert tonight. Note that the one in the photo is smaller than the one described in the recipe (only a 7 inch tart).
Making the most of the fresh fruit season, here are two variations on Peach Cherry Pie. They use identical ingredients (though there is some variance is the measurements of those ingredients), but what I was trying to show is that recipes are fairly flexible. When you don’t want to make the same thing over and over, changing something as little as the topping can make something familiar be something new. I love that.