-Martha Stewart Hors d’
2 c Flour
1 pn Salt
3/4 c Cold, unsalted butter
1/3 c Ice water
Combine flour and salt in food processor. Cut butter into small
pieces and add to flour. Process quickly until resembles coarse meal.
Add water by droplets, just mixing until dough holds together when
pressed with fingers—NOT wet or stickey. Remove dough and press
into a flat round, wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes. To form
tartlets, you’ll need twice as many pans as the quantity of shells
you want to make. Lightly butter or pam the insides of half the pans.
Roll out half the pastry on floured board into a round about 1/8″
thick. Continually move pastry around board, burning over once or
twice to prevent sticking. Put tartlet pans on pastry and, with a
sharp knife, cut pastry into pieces slightly larger than pans. Place
pastry in prepared pans, pressing firmly, and cut off the excess
pastry with thumb. Press an unbuttered pan into each pastry-lined pan
to act as a weight during baking. Place shells on baking sheet and
chill 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375. To bake, set another baking
sheet on top of tartlets. Bake for 10 minutes, until edges begin to
have color. Remove top baking sheet and liner pans and continue to
bake until shells are lightly golden—5-7 more minutes. Remove
shells from pans and cool on racks. Shells can be cooled fully then
cushioned with wax paper, stacked and stored in an airtight container
up to three days. Also they can be frozen. Place unthawed shells in
a 350 degree oven—don’t allow to brown further.
Yields
40 Servings