8 tart pastry recipes

Flaky pastry tart crust made with grapefruit soda instead of water. A 4-ingredient shortening crust that blind bakes golden in 20 minutes. The carbonation keeps the dough light and tender.

If you like sweet and buttery, you'll love these little gems. Quick and easy if you use store-bought mini tart shells. Or your could make your own shells out of pastry dough and bake them in a mini muffin pan.

Open face apple tart with overlapping Golden Delicious slices, apricot glaze, and a buttery pastry shell. The classic French tarte aux pommes done simply at home.

Basic apricot glaze simmers apricot preserves with sugar and water into a clear, golden lacquer for fruit tarts, danish pastries, and croissants. Essential pastry kitchen building block in 15 minutes.

Tomato and basil puff pastry tarts with vine-ripened slices over a thick tomato coulis. Shatteringly crisp pastry, no soggy bottoms, six individual rounds.

Linzer pastry dough with a full pound of butter, egg yolks, lemon zest, and vanilla. A rich, tender Austrian dough for jam-filled cookies, tarts, and meringue-topped pastries.

Classic French creme patissiere made with egg yolks, sugar, milk, and vanilla. The essential pastry cream for tarts, eclairs, cream puffs, and fruit desserts.

Individual rustic fruit tarts with shortcrust pastry, apricot jam glaze, and thinly sliced apples or pears. A French-bistro dessert that bakes in 15 minutes and looks gorgeous.