Links for Norma

Parker's aunt Norma asked for the recipe for the tarts.  Since she's far away, and it's unlikely we'll show up at the same bake sale, I'll go ahead and share my recipes.  :-)

For the little tarts, I basically followed what this gal did on her blog (the underlined words are the links to the websites).  I added some little dot of butter before baking and some sanding sugar and brushed them with melted apricot jam when they came out....it seals it and give it a golden color.  I've also tried it with apples, cinnamon, etc and it was great.  Pears are good too.  A fancy variation I haven't had a chance to try yet would be to add some cheese under the filling....gorgonzola w/ pears or sharp cheddar or brie with apples.  I found it easier to form the tarts and then add the filling.  If you put too much filling and don't fold the edges over enough, they fall apart in the oven.  Bob is the happy consumer of the 'ugly tarts'.
I've also gotten ooh and aaah over using Ina Garten's French Apple Tart recipe too...I've done it full size and half size. I think it needs a bit of an edge to it though, so keep everything from running all over the baking pan.
I like to spread out the labor....make the dough and roll and cut one day, and then make the filling, form tarts and bake the next day....so it's about an hour each day, minus the baking time.

Here's the link for the Pumpkin Pie Bites.  The filling shrinks down quite a bit after they bake.  I had the same pumpkin cookie cutter she did, but I'm sure you can get away with just using a circle.  I used store bought pie dough and I thought it needed something to make it more brown/shiny....maybe brush with egg wash?  In the link, the gal piped chocolate on hers for the faces, but I used cream cheese frosting, chocolate didn't sound good to me. 

Happy baking!!