Hello Sunshine!

This week on Baking with Anna, we’re making Augie’s favorite: raspberry tarts.

Settle in, turn on the new season of the Witcher with me. And break out your apron.

Today’s recipe comes from here. It is based on an 1831 recipe from Canada. It seems likely that a similar recipe would have been floating around England earlier but this was one of the recipes I found that seemed most likely to be available when Anna was baking. At its core, it’s a pretty standard pastry crust recipe.

A note about my baking skills. I am pretty good at cupcakes, and most cookies (last week not withstanding). I also make excellent pies, as long as I can go to the store and buy refrigerated pie crusts and unroll. This was my second attempt at pastry, the first being croissants at the beginning of the pandemic that were a mess. And I’ve honestly never bothered to attempt a pie crust unless shopping and carrying counts.

This recipe was pretty basic ingredient wise.

1 1/2 C flour-this ended up being 236g for me
3/4 of the weight of the flour in unsalted butter (I used salted because I thought I had unsalted and I didn’t want to leave the house)- this ended up being 177g. This gets divided in two which is 88.5g.
1 egg white
water as needed-I used 2 1/2 tsp

First step involved mixing 1/2 (88.5g) of the butter into the flour. I used fingers because I’ve always had the best luck mixing butter into flour that way.

Next, add the egg white and enough water to bring the dough together. It was quite crumbly when it was just the flour and butter so I ended up needing 2 1/2 tsp of water but your milage may vary.

Set that aside and roll the remaining butter out into a thin rectangle. Refrigerate between layers of plastic wrap for 20 minutes. All was well. I’ve got this! I sit on a throne of lies!

While the butter refrigerates, roll the dough on a floured surface into a rectangle.

Sit down and watch part of the episode of The Witcher-realize you have no recollection of what happened last season but refuse to rewatch.

Then take the, now cold, butter out of the fridge and wrap the butter in the dough in thirds. This process is called lamination and I made a huge mess of it when I made croissants a few years ago. But I’ve got this, remember? I’ve got this.

Roll it out into a rectangle taking care to not let the butter escape from the dough. And this, this is where everything always goes horribly wrong! I am incapable of keeping the butter in the dough. And when the butter breaks through, then it will ooze out of the dough on baking.

Fold it in thirds again and roll out again. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

See the corner where the butter has escaped. And how the dough looks marbled-that’s butter peeking through. It’s evidence of a mess to come.

Take it out of the fridge, fold it in thirds again, and roll it into a rectangle again. Repeat and put back in the fridge for another 30 minutes. Then pull it out, fold in thirds, roll it out and repeat.

Roll it out one final time. Then you can fill your pan. I have mini tart pans from Country Kitchen.

Then it’s time to make the filling. I was feeling lazy so I bought raspberry filling from Country Kitchen. So I broke a sweat cutting the tip off the bag and squeezing the filling into the pan. If you want to make your own, the instructions are on the recipe. It doesn’t seem too difficult.

Make a lattice crust with the leftover crust

Bake at 400F for 20-30 minutes (mine took 25). Pray the butter stays in the crust in spite of all your efforts to the contrary. But plan ahead and bake on a cookie sheet for when the inevitable oozing happens.

Feed the fluffy editor when she starts banging on the food bowl.

Pull out of the oven and let cool.

The ooze is less than I was expecting but there’s definitely still butter there.

They look pretty similar to the picture in the recipe. So we’re slightly better than last week.

Now for the taste test….

They taste… hot. I burned my tongue, the roof of my mouth, and the back of my throat because I am impatient. Once I recovered, I tasted it and… it’s pretty good. Certainly not worth the effort, but more than edible. I think the premade filling is sweeter than it would usually be which compensated for the relatively plain crust. I’d say they’re a 4/5.

Like last week, I won’t bother again. But I understand why Augie would love Anna for these, because obviously she makes them much better than I did!

If you have any tips for keeping the butter in the crust, let me know down in the comments. I’ve struggled with that during both of my attempts at pastry!

I’ll see you next week for an exclusive SNEAK PEEK of the cover!!!

<3 Ally