Tarts in Parts: What IS a Tart?

I'm kind of doing this backwards.  I should have started my tart series with this bit of research, instead of doing recipes first.  Oh well.  Sometimes I'm not very linear.  The first thing I needed when I decided I wanted to be a Tart Queen, was to get clear on my definition of TART. 

According to the Joy of Cooking:

Tart is defined as a single-layered base of pastry (plain or puff) with a sweet or savory filling baked in either a shallow tart pan that has straight, fluted sides and a removable bottom or a metal tart ring placed on a baking sheet.   The tart is removed from the tart pan or ring before serving. Broadly, the term 'tart' encompasses flans, quiches, and pies.   Depending on the type of tart made they can be served as appetizers, entrees or desserts.  Their size ranges from bite-size (hors d'oeuvre), individual-size (tartlet) to full-size (tart).

But Baking 911, in their intro to pies and tarts, says the definition/distinction goes thusly:

PIES: A pie is American in design and can be both sweet or savory and is served directly from its pan. Most pies are usually baked with a layer of pastry dough or other crust doughs and mixtures, lining a regular 9-inch or a deep-dish 8-inch round pie pan, both with sloping sides.

TARTS: A tart, on the other hand, is a European open-faced cousin of the pie. Tarts seem to be more refined than pies, which are homier in nature. The Strawberry Tart with Pastry Cream is one of my favorites.  Tarts are usually baked in a 9- or 10-inch straight, short-sided pan with a removable bottom and fluted edges, the pan being half the depth of a pie pan. They are also baked in a pastry ring placed on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Is anybody besides me confused?  Pies are just taller than tarts, then, right?  And pies are sometimes covered with a layer of crust/dough, but not always.  The other thing I don't get is the removeable bottom.  I actually bought some tart pans with fluted sides and removeable bottoms.  I can't figure out why the bottoms are separate.  I gather it has solely to do with being able to remove the entire thing to serve it. Pie pans don't have removeable bottoms because pies are served directly from the pan.

All tarts end up being free-standing because after baking, they are taken out of the pan and put on a platter for serving, as the pan's removable bottom helps to facilitate this.

I always thought tarts were just smaller versions of pies.  I had never seen a 9 inch crust-and-filling confection that was called a tart.  But since many of the recipes I found on the net talk about just such an animal, I gather it's not that unusual.  The kind of tart I usually think of - anywhere from 2 inches to 5 inches in diameter - is more traditionally called an Individual Tart, or even "Tartlet", which calls to mind a certain Friends episode in which the food critic gets stoned.  Hilarious.  The word Tartlet can send me into peals of hysterical laughter, so don't get me started.  We'll just call these little-uns TARTS, and leave PIE for the big-uns, ok?  Ok.

So, anyway.  I've got these removeable-bottom tart pans, but I don't much like the shape.  So I went shopping this morning for a product that I saw on this post at Mekuno Cooking. 

I stole Faith's picture of the pan, to show you what I was looking for, because although my grocery store had a huge display of these silicone type pans, guess which one they did NOT have?  You got it, Murphy's Law loves me.  The only thing I wanted, they didn't have.  No tart pans.  I really want to try these, so I may have to order some online somewhere.

The tart recipe sounds delish too.  I think Faith must be a 3-dot cook.  I'm still working at becoming a two-dot cook.

The resulting tart crust would look something like this:

Pretty, huh?  I love the shape.  As opposed to the fluted-but-flat pans I have that turn out something that looks more like this:

My SIL just uses muffin tins.  She makes a pretty good crust from scratch, so that just shows-ta-go-ya, you don't HAVE to have fancy-schmancy pans to make cool tarts.

Now the subject of crust is another whole thing, and a major source of frustration for me, so I'll leave that for another post.

Comments

[Greyown]

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[Kelly]

i made a dark chocolate tart just before christmas, and although the recipe said to use a removeable bottom tart pan, which i did, it didn't say what to do with it once it was baked. i turned it upside down, which i'm guessing now was the wrong thing to do. (the recipe can be found on my friend's blog, here: http://jdomeyer.blogspot.com/2007/10/dessert.html.) thanks for your investigative work! :) --kellyinarlington

[Patty Lawig]

Do I need to repeat the same email subject I just sen to you?

[Patty Lawig]

Shoot, I had this all typed out and tried to change a punctuation while previewing it and my text disappeared. I want instructions on how to bake a tart up on the exterior of a cupcake pan rather than bake them inside and try to remove them. I need special instructions, Do I spray the outside of the pan, what temp. and how long.

I want to fill them with a thawed frozen strawberris either in a sour cream sauce or clear. I have looked just about everywhere on the web cooking shows and find no results.

Waiting your reply, and bless you for your help.

Patty Ladwig
[email protected]