Picture this (TWD)

So you know you've really gotten into this food blogging thing...  when you get up in the middle of eating your dessert so you can take another picture of it.  Which is exactly what I did Sunday night.  =)

That got me thinking about how much things have evolved over the past 6 months since I started doing this.  Thank goodness for digital cameras and being able to take a whole bunch of pictures to see what works and what doesn't.  I think the single thing that has helped the most was discovering the macro setting on my camera, so I can take close-up shots that aren't blurry in front and focused on something in the background of the picture.  I've tried different things, like taking pictures as I make a recipe (to show some of the process), but I think what I like best is taking interesting pictures of the final result. 

On to the recipe that inspired the photographs of my interrupted dessert...  La Palette's Strawberry Tart was selected by Marie of A Year From Oak Cottage for this week's installment of Tuesdays with Dorie.  This seemed to be a pretty popular choice with most people, since in many areas it's a good time of year for strawberries. I hit the jackpot for good fruit at the end of last week--juicy peaches, fragrant raspberries and some good-looking strawberries.  It turned out that the strawberries weren't quite as ripe as they looked, but they were still pretty tasty.  I didn't have quite as many as I needed, so some of the raspberries ended up in my tart as well.

This tart uses the same dough as we used for the French Lemon Cream Tart back in April. When I made the dough before, I went with mini tarts, so this was the first time I baked a full-sized shell with it.  I found the dough pretty easy to work with, and freezing the dough in the pan before baking worked quite well.

Next, the recipe calls for strawberry jam to be spread on the crust.  I actually have a jar of strawberry jam in my fridge, but I really don't care for it--for one thing, it's way too sweet for my taste.  So I ended up going with my favorite raspberry fruit butter, which was nice with the raspberries that I added to the tart.  I tossed the berries with a bit of sugar, and once they'd had a chance to produce some juice, I spooned them over the crust.  

The verdict?  Yum.  This is definitely one to make again, as long as we have really good fruit.  I wouldn't recommend it otherwise.  Next time I may try some sort of topping, such as the creme fraiche that Dorie suggests, but simple is good too.  If you want to make your own delicious strawberry tart, the recipe can be found in Baking From My Home to Yours.  Don't have a copy?  Enter here to see if you can win one and join the fun at Tuesdays with Dorie. While you're there, don't forget to check out the blogroll for more beautiful tarts.