These vegan raspberry tarts are a simple treat;
easy to make, easy to eat =P
I forgot how much I enjoy baking. With the eczema on my hands, it’s been hard for me to have the mobility to work with dough and be able to wash my hands without excessively damaging my skin. Every now and then, when I have the ability to bake again, I’m reminded how much I love the smell of caramelized sugar wafting in the air after a batch of cookies or pie goes into the oven.
It reminds me of that one pretty terrible movie with Mandy Moore, Diane Keaton, and Gabriel Macht before he got big with Suits. In Because I Said So, Mandy Moore bakes up a batch of cookies right before her date shows up at her house so that her house smelled like cookies, and that sort of stuck with me.
I wouldn’t say that it’s the reason why I like baking, but it’s definitely one of the things I love about baking. When I was in university, I’d come home and bake cookies for my little brother because he didn’t really like sweets that much except for my soft baked chocolate chip cookies (the key is to underbake them!) I guess I baked them so much that he began to associate the smell of baked goods with me.
There was one time around Christmas time, I had been baking and my friend who was visitng asked my brother if he liked the smell of cookies.
He responded with, “Yes! It smells like Lisa.”
It almost made me want to cry–a little out of love, and a little out of guilt. He was probably around 8 or 9 at the time, and it had been about 3 or 4 years of me being in university in Ottawa, so I had spent nearly half his life away from home.
I don’t tend to bake that much anymore–partly because of my hands/eczema, but also because my metabolism can’t handle 3 batches of macaron testing or cupcake testing like it used to. But whenever I do bake, I feel this satisfying feeling that I’m sharing a little good in the world. Paying it forward, one sweet bite at a time, and it makes my house smell good in the process :)
These vegan raspberry tarts were actually for my brother’s school project, where he had to translate a recipe in French. If you want to see us baking together and some silly moments, be sure to check out our video <3
Yields 24 tarts
30 minPrep Time
30 minCook Time
2 hrTotal Time
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Ingredients
- 400 g (14 oz) frozen raspberries, or about 2 pints of fresh raspberries
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 lime, juiced
- 3-4 tbsp sugar (if you like it tart, stick with 3, if you like it sweeter, try going 4-5 tbsp)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 batch of the BEST vegan pie crust (add a pinch of salt and 2 tbsp of sugar to this dough since we're making sweet pastry)
Instructions
- To make the jam, in a small pot over medium heat, cook raspberries, water, lime juice and sugar until raspberries have fully broken down and the mixture is nice and bubbly.
- Take out about 2 tbsp worth of the liquid and stir in 1 tbsp of cornstarch to make a slurry. Add back into the jam and stir quickly to incorporate and thicken.
- Once thickened, remove from heat and transfer to another container to allow to cool (it'll continue cooking if you leave it in the pot).
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Roll out chilled pie dough to about 1/8-1/6 of an inch thickness. Cut into 3 inch circles and press into the cavities of a cupcake pan. Press well into the sides to make sure it's fully formed.
- Prick the bottoms a few times with a fork to prevent air bubbles while baking.
- Fill the tart shells half way with the jam (about 1 heaping tbsp per tart), then bake for 10-12 minutes or until the outside edges are nice and golden. If your oven runs a little cool, you may need to bake longer, but just check them at around 11 minutes.
- Remove from the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack before eating. Nobody likes hot raspberry lava burning your mouth :(
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