My youngest had been asking to make little fruit tarts. A few weeks back we did just that. Since then, she has made several batches of her own pastry dough whenever I am (conveniently) out running errands--"I know the recipe, Mom. It is just flour, butter, salt, and water. It's easy." Good for her! This recipe for pastry dough has always worked for me. We made a couple batches the day we decided to make some tarts. My daughter filled some mini tart pans and also made some free-form tarts. Just add fruit, sprinkle with sugar and a few teaspoons of butter and bake off at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes. I also like to heat up some apricot jam and brush the top of the baked tart with the warm jam. Delicious!
Pastry Dough
1 ¼ cups flour
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 -4 Tablespoons ice water
Put flour and salt into large bowl. Using a pastry blender, blend butter into flour until incorporated (you will have lots of little lumps). Drizzle 2 tablespoons of ice water over mixture and gently stir with a large fork until incorporated. Gently squeeze a small handful to see if it holds together without cumbling apart. If it doesn't, add more ice water, one tablespoon at a time. Use the heel of your hand and smear the dough against the bottom of the bowl in a forward motion, about 4 times - this will help to distribute the butter. Gather dough and place it on a sheet of plastic wrap --forming it into a disk by pressing down on the wrapped dough. Chill, until firm, at least 30 minutes.
