The Tea Trolley

       

Making tarts for tea is a wonderful idea.  But every good idea has it's challenges, and making tarts is no exception.  I TRULY dislike rolling out pastry!  It is something, dear reader, that I do not do well.  Enter the handy tart pastry tamper.  What an absolutely wonderful kitchen gadget!  I purchased mine from the Regal catalogue several years ago.  As you can probably see from the picrture, the tamper has a large end and a small end for tamping down either the miniature and regular-sized tarts.  You portion out about a teaspoon of dough, roll it into a small ball and place it on the bottom of the tart pan cavity.  Then, taking the tamper, you press it into the cavity with an even pressure.  The pastry dough travels up the side of the muffin cavity, creating a perfect tart shell.  If you want to bake unfilled tart shells, as in the recipe for Cape Breton Pork Pies  you will need to puncture the bottom and sides of the uncooked shell repeatedly with a toothpick or a fork so that as the shell is baking, it stays flat.  If you don't do this, you will end up with little tart shell sombreroes, ( the bottoms will arch upward!) making it impossible to fill the shells with the filling.  I cannot emphasize enough how much wasted time and how many headaches this little instrument will help you to avoid.  It is a really good thing, as Miss Martha might say! So run, don't walk and find yourself one of these neat doo-hickeys.. You'll not regret the purchase, I guarantee it!