A Tart of a Day

Welcome To Tarts: 101...

Tart day. A day which some would cringe with the thought of having to create such tedious things but I on the other hand giggled like a school girl. Making tarts is not something that I have ever done and only had I seen them in books....thinking that I would never do anything like that! But I was dead wrong. This so far had to be the coolest thing we have yet to make. A fresh fruit tart consists of a shell that is completely baked then a pastry cream is put into the shell then it is topped with fresh (and only fresh) fruit. The color alone was awesome and it is a wonderful pastry to take to a dinner, or just to impress your friends with. The one above that I made has raspberries, oranges, strawberries, kiwi, and lemons along with an apricot glaze on all of the fruit. Now the next one is an almond tart made with almond meal. It is completely baked with the creme d' amande in the middle, which is almost like a stiffer pudding. It has confectioner's sugar on top and smells wonderful. With all of these pastries I find myself simply looking at them, not wanting to take a bite mainly because of all the time and effort that went into them. It is so much easier to ship pieces off to others and see the enjoyment that they get from my hard work. I know that I should be trying them to get how they taste but I just can't make myself do it! They are too beautiful! But on the other hand, not eating most of these will ward off the dreaded "Culinary School 50 (pounds)" that everyone talks about. Alright, enough tart talk. I have a cookie test tomorrow and it's study time!
One last thing....... I wanted to let everyone know that the essay I wrote recently that you can see a few posts down titled "I have a dream" recently won me a $500 scholarship here at school. Thank you to Glenda (Grandma) and Nancy for their letters of recommendation!!