Strawberry Custard Tarts

My daughter used to like to watch Sandra Lee's Food Network show Semi-Homemade and I liked to make fun of her for watching it.
That is my introduction to this very simple recipe for fresh strawberry tarts. It also came about when I wanted an easy dessert and was looking through my pantry, I found vanilla pudding mix and frozen pie crust.

Semi-homemade Fresh Strawberry Custard Tarts
Yield 12 small tarts

Ingredients

12 large fresh strawberries.

Custard:
1 package vanilla pudding mix
1 1/4 cup cold milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

Crust
1 frozen pie crust (half a package)


1) Whisk 1 1/4 cup cold milk into a package of Trader Joe's vanilla pudding mix*.
Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract. Chill.

2) Preheat oven to 375 F. Allow on frozen pie crust to come to room temperature.

3) Roll out on wax paper.

4) Use a jar lid or whatever to cup into 12 circles. I found a large mouth canning ring was perfect. Use a fork to make lots of tiny pricks in the dough.

5) Lightly grease a muffin tin. Fill each cup with a circle of pie crust. Press them in to fit the cup.

6) Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes depending on how thin the crust is, allow to cool before removing them from the muffin tins. It is OK if they shrink down a bit, mine did.

7) Now you have all the components and you can put them together right before you serve them, that way the crust won't get soggy. Take a tablespoon of pudding and fill a tart shell.

8) Cut up the strawberries in any way you like and stick them in the pudding. You can use any kind of fresh fruit you like, raspberries, blueberries, apricots, peaches, etc...

9) The pudding and crusts should last for a week in the fridge.


* I just found out they don't carry it anymore :-( I am sure there is something equivalent at your local grocer or Whole Foods. You can also use the kind they have in the dairy case, Kozy Shack makes a decent pudding.