Maids of Honor Tarts
My friend the Queen of Teas, mentioned that one of her favorite sweets in London was Maid of Honor Tarts. I had never heard of these, but for the Royal Tea, I wanted to find out. I was so fascinated by the name – Maids of Honor Tarts. It is so English sounding. Don’t you think the name alone gave the Royal Tea Wedding Shower a hint of a proper English Tea. During the course of my mission to find a recipe for the Maids of Honor Tarts, I was amazed to find so many recipes, but wouldn’t you know it – all of them were so different. Ms Queen of Teas thought the tarts she ate were filled with almonds and included cream cheese. Okay, that was a start.
I guess it is presumptuous to try to make something I had never eaten, but I was determined (remember, where there’s a will – there’s a way) to have Maids of Honor Tarts at the Royal Wedding Tea. Here is what I finally did by combining recipes. I know these are not “correct”, but try them. They are g-o-o-d! Have a couple of these tarts with a cup of tea, and you are good to go for the rest of the day.
Enjoy!
PS If you have a “proper” Maid of Honor Tart recipe, please share.
Maids of Honor Tarts
By Published: April 20, 2012
- Yield: 24 miniature tarts
A delicious tart with an almond and cream cheese filling. These tarts are just the thing to enjoy with a cup of tea.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups slivered almonds finely ground
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon brandy
- 8 ounce package cream cheese softened
- 1 extra large egg
- 1 package pie crust two crusts or make your own
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degres.
- In the work bowl of a food processor or blender, finely grind almonds.
- In a medium bowl combine ground almonds, sugar, and flour.
- In another medium bowl, combine cream, butter, lemon juice, brandy, cream cheese, and egg.
- Mix the almond mixture and the cream cheese mixture together using an electric mixer at medium speed. Beat until well combined.
- On a lightly floured surface roll out the pie crust. It will be about a 10 inch round.
- Using a two inch round cutter, cut rounds of pastry that will fit into miniature muffin cups. You can re-roll the pastry.
- Press pastry rounds into the wells of the miniature muffin cups.
- Fill pastry cups with almond filling.
- Bake 10-12 minutes until just beginning to brown.
- Cool 10 minutes, and then remove the tarts to wire racks to cool completely.
- Drizzle with cinnamon glaze made with 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
- Variations: Other recipes put fruit preserves in the bottom of the pastry before adding the almond mixture. Other recipes add 1/3 cup of currents to the almond mixture.