I was late getting my pie filling for this week’s Bake Along, I only picked it up this morning and didn’t get making my tarts until late this afternoon. In fact, I just finished baking them about an hour ago! So instead of posting two separate, almost simultaneous posts, one for my Tea Advent Calendar and the other for the Fantastic Bake Along, I thought I would do one double duty post.
I’ll begin with today’s tea, Caramel Shortbread, which is new this year. I ordered some of this around the time I ordered my Advent Calendar because I really wanted to give it a try. It’s one of my favourite new seasonal teas this year.
Caramel Shortbread is a fruit infusion containing almonds, willow bark and cherry, and on opening the tin, it smells nutty, buttery, and sweet. Being a fruit infusion I steeped this for 5 minutes with near boiling water. Once steeped this infusion is very light in colour, and has a light, slightly sweet, buttery taste, much like the cookies it’s named for. I’m still loving this one!
And now for Cherry Tarts! I’m a bit late getting my tarts made for this month’s Fantastic Bake Along, once again hosted by Tracy at It’s a T-Sweets Day!. If you’re interested in this recipe you can find it over on her blog, here.
For the most part I followed Tracy’s recipe, even down to using the same cutter she has. I bought it a while ago, and hadn’t had the chance to use it, so this was its maiden recipe. Because I’m trying to eat healthier, I exchanged 1 cup of the flour for 1 cup of whole wheat flour. Everything else in the crust was the same.
I mixed my crust up, rolled it out, and cut my circles. I then transferred them to parchment lined baking pans, added the cherry pie filling (I used E.D. Smith Light and Fruity Cherry Pie Filling, to help cut back on the amount of sugar.), and then added my tops. I used the cutter/press to seal the edges.
One thing I did do differently was that I didn’t add a glaze to my tarts. I’m sure they are way better with it, but when I calculated the points for Weight Watchers, each tart was getting pretty high, even before adding the glaze. Instead I opted to brush the tops with a bit of almond milk, and sprinkling with just a pinch of sugar before baking.
I cooked them for the recommended 30 minutes and they turned out just lovely! Although I think mine could have used just a bit more filling, and I’m sure they aren’t as sweet as Tracy’s, they were still very good! I’ll be bookmarking this recipe and trying some other fillings!
Don’t forget to check out the other bakers at the following links:
- Tracy at It’s A T-Sweets Day!
- AJ at A Petite Slice of Life
- Abbey at Three Cats and a Girl
- Emma at Emma Crafts Design
- Kathy @ Sewing Etc. (Kathy’s post will be up sometime this coming week.)
The tea advent calendar is turning into something juicy. I had no idea there were so many flavors and mixes from David’s. It’s totally weird how they try to color some teas and don’t bother with others, but I guess your tea looks like shortbread, right? All pale.
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They have so many flavours, and they have seasonal ones too, so they are always retiring flavours and coming out with new ones. And yes, I thought that about the colour of this one too, lol.
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The tarts sound very yummy! 🙂
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Thanks, Cindy!
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Oh brushing with milk and sugar sounds like a great idea. With their pale colour, the sugar would be a gorgeous addition.
I loved the caramel shortbread too!
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I think next time I would try with coarse sugar rather than regular sugar, because it didn’t show up very well.
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Ok good to know:)
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How wonderful Kate!! I’m so glad you had the cutter:). Definitely try a few more cherries if you don’t add the glaze. — so is the shortbread Tea an herbal type tea or does it have the tea leaves? I would love to try it but I don’t drink green or black tea.
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The Caramel Shortbread is a fruit infusion, so there are no tea leaves. You can check out the ingredients on the David’s Tea website to make sure there is nothing in it that you don’t normally drink. This link may or may not work…it’s for the Canadian site. https://www.davidstea.com/ca_en/caramel-shortbread-tea
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Oh thank you! I will Check it out. It would be so fun to have an online tea party with you❤️❤️
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It would be fun! Hey have lots of fruit infusions that don’t contain tea leaves, so if that one doesn’t appeal, you may find another that does!
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Yours look amazing! I think I will try them with some whole wheat flour. I used canned cherries rather than the recommended pie filling and that didn’t have too many calories either but still kept it’s sweetish taste 🙂
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Thanks! Yes, yours looked ready good!
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Yummy, Kate, on both counts! I might try a wash with sugar sprinkled in mine. I’m going to make a mini batch this afternoon.
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I want to try them with mincemeat filling, lol.
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Sounds like they went quite well! I like the idea of switching a few things out to make them a little healthier for you.
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