Strawberry Rhubarb Tartlets—small and smaller

Makes 6 small and 20 smaller tartlets

   

I didn’t grow up with rhubarb--heck, I didn’t grow up with much more than frozen corn and canned green beans—but I’ve eaten it and experimented with it over the years and have become a fan. Chris, however, is a long-time lover of the strawberry-rhubarb combo, so when a few stalks were coming in our organic box this week, his cravings were the priority. “What do you want me to do with the rhubarb?” I asked him probably five times over the weekend, because at $3/lb I can hardly think of a greater tragedy than rotting rhubarb in my produce drawer. I never did get a proper answer from him so I had to take matters into my own hands. Chris isn’t a big cake eater, so while I have a great rhubarb coffee cake recipe from a family friend, some kind of pie seemed to be the best choice. But I’m not big on fruit pies. And so the dilemma arises: when there are only two of us in the house (toddler doesn’t count; we all know he gets a piece of chocolate the size of a grain of sand when cleans his plate), one of whom has to be REMINDED to eat dessert (that would be Chris, not me), a whole fruit pie could sit on the counter for a veerrryyy long time. Solution: mini-tarts! Just pop ‘em in your mouth! Freeze ‘em for later! Offer ‘em to guests without the bother of a plate and fork! This happened to also be the maiden voyage of my mini-muffin pan, which I’m ever so excited about. Why are there sizes ‘small’ and ‘smaller’? Because I got lazy. I still had a third of my fixins left after the mini muffin pan was full, so I did the rest in a regular muffin pan and cooked them at the same time.

Crust:

1 1/2 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

2-3 Tbs sugar

1/2 C chilled butter or butter and shortening mixed

2-4 Tbs ice water

Blend flour, salt, sugar and butter in food processor until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add ice water until dough just comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill one hour.

Filling:

1 lb rhubarb, washed and trimmed

1 lb strawberries, hulled

1 C sugar

3 Tbs cornstarch

Again, I opt for the food processor because, with the diminutive size of these tartlets, you do not want big nuggets of rhubarb getting in your way. So pulse the rhubarb and the strawberries separately until they are more or less diced. Stir them together with sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl, and let them macerate for about 20 minutes while your dough it chilling.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a mini-muffin pan, and a regular muffin pan if you’re lazy too. To do my exact proportions, divide dough into thirds. In the palm of your hands roll two of the thirds into about 10 little balls each (20 total). Roll the last third into 6 larger balls. Flour your work surface and rolling pin. Flatten the little balls into about 2.5-in in circles, then press into mini-muffin pan. Roll the larger into about 3.5-in circles and press them into the larger muffin tin. Fill close to the top with filling. Put them in the oven at the same time—bake the minis for 25 minutes, and the larger ones for 35-40.

Dust with powdered sugar or, even better, with a tiny dollop of whipped cream.