Pecan Tarts

My Granny's birthday was this month. For her birthday, I made Pecan Tarts. She loved them! The recipe for the tarts is below.

Pecan Tarts

First, make the pie dough. I use a double-crust pie dough recipe.

It seems like the double-crust recipe I use makes just enough dough for the amount of pecan filling.

Pie dough recipe

2 cups of All-purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon of Salt

2/3 cup of Shotening

6 -7 Tablespoons of cold Water

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour and salt. Cut in the shortening till pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle two to three tablespoons of the cold water over mixture. Stir and cut the mixture. Add as much more of the cold water as needed.

Form the dough in a ball and put on a floured surface.

Roll the dough out to the thickness of 1/8 - 1/4 inch.

Lay the tart pan face - down on the dough and cut around it 1/4 inch away from the pan.

Press the piece of cut dough into the tart pan. Apply enough pressure to the dough so that the dough will stay in place inside of the tart pan.

After all of the tart pans have pie dough they can be filled with the pecan tart filling.

Pecan Tart Filling

1 cup of Light Corn Syrup

3 Large Eggs

2 Tablespoons of Butter (not margarine)

1 teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract

2 cups of Pecan Halves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit. In a mixing bowl, mix together using a spoon corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter, and vanilla. Stir in pecans. Pour pecan tart filling into tart pans.
Put all of the tart pans onto a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 50 - 60 minutes or until the center surface of tart can be lighty pressed against and the surface will spring back.
Cool tarts on a wire rack.

I love to make tarts! When I am at thrift shops and yard sales, I look for tart pans. I recently went to a thrift shop that was out of town and I found seven new tart pans at $0.25 each. I was so excited to find them and to add them to my collection.

Belle

Please visit my store - http://www.homesteaderbelle.blogspot.com/
You can email me @ homesteaderbelle@yahoo.com/

Pistachio Pudding Recipe

Mmmm....I love Pistachio Pudding. My Granny always make this dish for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Pistachio Pudding is very simple dessert to make.

~Pistachio Pudding~
To make Pistachio Pudding, you will need:
1 Box of Pistachio Instant Pudding
1 1/2 C. Miniature Marshmallows
1 (20 ounce) can Crushed Pineapple
1 Large container of Cool Whip
Maraschino Cherries

Stir all ingredients together in a large serving bowl. After all the ingredients are stirred together, put maraschino cherry halves over the top of the pudding, cover the bowl of pudding with lid or with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator to set up.

Thank you for visiting my blog! Please come back and visit again soon.

Belle

My Store: From the Past

Homemade Laudry Soap: How to make it (tutorial)

Today, I made homemade laudry soap. While, I was making it I thought,"I should put the recipe for this soap and how to make it on my blog." So, I will post how to make it.
This is the recipe for homemade soap make a five-gallon bucket full of liquid soap.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Supplies needed for this project:

• 1 Bar of Fel-Naptha Soap
• 2 cups of Borax
  
• 2 cups of Arm & Hammer Washing (not baking) Soda
• a pot and a lid
  
• a clean five-gallon bucket
• a spoon
• a grater (like a cheese grater)
• a large stick for stirring - a broom handle works great!
• 
  

First, grate the bar of Fels-Naptha with a grater, in the pot.

When I grate soap, I usually wear a mask or a bandana over my mouth and nose so I don't breathe in the fumes of the soap.

Put hot water in the pot with the grated soap, enough hot water to cover the grated soap. Put a lid on the pot of grated soap and heat the soap on the stove on meduim heat .

Now, put 2 cups of Borax and 2 cups of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda) in the five-gallon bucket.


Fill the five-gallon bucket with hot water, leave enough head-space in the bucket to add the pot of melted soap. Stir the hot water, Borax, and Arm & Hammer Washing soda with your long stick as you fill the bucket with the hot water. Do not add the water too quickly or will get a bunch of bubbles and soapy suds.
When the pot of grated soap is completely melted, it can be poured into the five-gallon bucket. Rinse the pot with water after all the soap is poured in and put the rinse water in too, so the whole bar of soap gets into the pot.

Stir the mixture together well and it is finished! You can use the soap immediatly, but do not bottle the soap for a day or two. In a few hours after making this soap usually turns into a thick gel, much like Jello. It is best to stir the soap every few hours or as often as possible for a day or two.

After a day or more of sitting in the bucket, it can be bottled. I store my soap in clean containers, juice containers work well. Any container used needs too be clean!

This Homemade Laundry soap doesn't make a bunch of suds like the laundry detergents from the store, but it does clean the laundry. To wash a one load of laundry, use one cup of homemade laundry soap.

This soap doesn't get the whites as white and bright as I like them, so I add about a cup of color safe bleach powder detergent to the whites, along with the cup of homemade laundry soap. I like the Sun brand color safe bleach. I get it at the Dollar Tree.

This soap has definately save money for my family! I hope you enjoy this recipe!

-Belle-

Strawberry Tarts and Recipe!

Friday, I made some strawberry tarts to share with some friends.

I love tarts! I love to make them and I love to eat them.

I bought my 11 tart pans and a heart shaped jello mold, which works great as a tart pan, for only $1.00 at a flea market. I had been looking for some and I finally found them at that flea market I went to. I was very excited to get them! Below is a picture of the heart shaped jello mold, one of my heart shaped tart pans, and one circle tart pan.

Here is the recipe to make strawberry tarts.

Strawberry Tarts

Recipe for Tart shell:

Tart Shell

• 2 Cups flour
• 1 teapsoon salt
• 2/3 cups shortening
• 6 to 7 tablespoons of cold water

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour and salt. Cut in shortening until pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the water over the mixture; toss gently with a fork. Gradually add more of the tablespoons of water while working with the mixture until the dough is moistened enough to form into a ball.Form the dough into a ball and flatten the dough, with hands, on a lightly floured surface.

Roll the dough into a even piece of dough.

Lay the tart pan on the dough and cut around it 1/4 inch away from the pan.

Press the piece of cut dough into the tart pan. Apply enough pressure to the dough so that the dough will stay in place inside of the tart pan.

Now, prick the dough inside the tart pan with a fork.

After the dough in the pan has been pricked, it should look like the picture below.

After the all of the tart pans are filled with the dough and pricked, they can now go into the preheated oven. (Below is a picture before they have been baked.)
Here is a picture of the tart shells after they have baked.

Now the tart shells are ready to be filled.

Here is the recipe to make strawberry filling.

Strawberry Filling

• 2 tubes of Wick's Strawberry Glaze (it can be found in the produce aisle, it is NOT THE SUGAR- FREE)
  
• 2 quarts of Fresh Strawberries
  

Wash and strain the strawberries. Core and slice the strawberries into small slices and put slices in a medium miing bowl. Add the tubes of strawberry glaze to the sliced strawberries and gently fold together with a spatula. After glaze and strawberries are combined, pour it into the tart shells.
Put a little whipped cream on top of each tart before serving and they are ready to eat. Enjoy!

Belle

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My blog name is Born 100 Years too Soon.