Nut tarts, the sequel

I previously shared a recipe for one of our family's favorite sweet treats, which we call nut tarts.

In the past, I've always made them as large wedges cut out of a 12" pie. But I wanted to experiment with making smaller pieces. You can't just cut the wedges thinner, because they'd get too fragile near the point. And all the points would break off. And then someone would have to eat those.

So this is a brief instruction in assembling and slicing them a different way. The original recipe is here, and up to the point where you begin rolling out the crust, nothing changes.

Instead of rolling the crust into a 12" circle, I aimed for more of a rectangle shape, which was roughly 12" in the longer direction. Then I marked the bottom crust lightly with a spatula to show where I was going to trim it. Then I spread the nuts to about 3/4 to 1" away from that mark, in two rows, leaving about 2" between the rows.

Then I lightly moistened the perimeter and center, and laid the second crust over this and pressed it gently down all over. Is it just me, or does this look sort of creepy?

Then I trimmed the excess crust away, leaving a rectangle-y  shape. I rolled out the excess dough for a bonus treat, but that's completely optional. I sprinkled the nut tarts lightly and the extra dough generously with cinnamon sugar. Oh, and the photo doesn't show this, but I pricked the top crust down the middle with a fork.

Then into the oven to bake for 18 - 20 minutes, or until golden-brown and delicious!

I cut one piece into wedges and the other into bars. The holes I made with the fork ended up making the top crusts crack apart there and some of the pieces break in two, so I would do that differently next time.

I may or may not have eaten the broken piece.

I think next time, I'll do wedges, but make the fork pokes closer to the wide end, like this:

Aren't you glad you can learn from my failures instead of making your own?

The way I cut these, I didn't end up with too many more pieces than in the original method, but they are sturdier. And cuter! And every bit as tasty!