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The Feast of the Queenship of Mary is tomorrow and I am going to help you bake a delicious tea party treat!
Peter Paul Rubens
The Coronation of the Virgin
I recently learned that this feast was strategically placed today on the Octave of the Assumption. In the old calendar we would have been partying all week with this as our culminating celebration. These two events, the Assumption and the Coronation of Mary, are intimately related because we believe that once Mary went to Heaven she was crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth. We get this from St. John's vision which he describes in Revelation 12: 1-5! The meaning behind that is better said by Pius XII, "Mary deserves the title because she is Mother of God, because she is closely associated as the New Eve with Jesus’ redemptive work, because of her preeminent perfection, and because of her intercessory power." In other words, we understand Mary's queenship through recognizing her intimate role in God's salvific plan.
If you want to read more, check out this article, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI gives a beautiful explanation on how the Queenship of Mary points us closer to Jesus! https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-explains-how-marys-queenship-points-to-jesus
In honor of our beautiful, Heavenly Queen it would be the perfect liturgical living opportunity to host a tea party . If you are celebrating at home with kids today you could have them color or decorate crowns for Our Lady and place them next to a statue or image of her in your home. You could also do an etiquette lesson, take out your nice table setting, and of course pray for Mary's intercession.
Quick note on the pie crust!
I made this pie crust for a quiche weeks before making the tarts. I do not have the recipe up for this particular pie crust yet but I will soon. I am not a big fan of heavy crusts, I like mine light and flaky so I tend to use the same pie crust for everything. However, you can easily make this recipe with store bought crust or your own favorite crust recipe. For this recipe, I am just going to focus on the filling and assembling the tarts.
Yields: 10-12 Tarts
Bake Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
This is my frozen pie crust, I let it thaw and then kept it in the refrigerator so that it could chill. This will make it easier to work with! :)
If you are starting this recipe like I am then go ahead and bake the dough once the shells are formed, the filling will be made separately and will not take long. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees!
Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out. Don't forget to put a little bit of flour on your rolling pin to prevent sticking.
Since we are doing minis grab a muffin or tart tin, cut out the dough, and fill the molds. I just used a water glass with flour along the edge because I don't have a tart cutter or tamper.
Prick the bottom of the each tart and put them in the oven at 400 degrees and bake for 10-12 minutes.
Cream Filling Ingredients
1. 2 3/4 C. Milk
2. 1/4 C. Corn Starch
3. 2/3 C. Sugar
4. 1/8 tsp Salt
5. 4 Egg Yolks
6. 2 tbsp Butter
7. 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Pour 2 3/4 C. milk into a glass bowl.
Then add 2/3 C. sugar to the milk.
Grab the corn starch and add in 1/4 cup.
Add in 4 egg yolks. When I was younger I used to be really bad at cracking eggs without breaking the yolk but look at how far I've come!
Then sprinkle in 1/8 tsp salt and whisk everything thoroughly until combined.
Pour the ingredients into a microwave safe glass bowl and microwave on HIGH for 7 minutes. I was really surprised when I got this recipe that it was asking me to microwave this! I mean I'm no tart snob but I have never made a dessert like this before. Not only does it turn out tasting really good, it also made this dessert fool proof so that is a win-win in my book!
Here's the trick, after microwaving for 3 minutes straight take it out and whisk it every minute thereafter until you've reached your full seven minutes. This helps it smooth and thicken so that reaches the consistency we want.
Once microwaved add in 2 tbsp butter.
Then measure 1 tsp vanilla and pour that on the mixture.
Whisk the butter and vanilla until thoroughly combined and creamy.
I was not ready to fill the shells yet because I needed to prep my fruit so the trick to not letting a skin develop across the top of your filling is to place plastic wrap along the top of it. Let it set while you cut the fruit for your tarts.
I went with peaches, apples, blueberries, and grapes! Cut up to the sizes that you desire, you can also remove the peach and apple skin according to preference.
Spoon the filling into the shells, I didn't worry about smoothing the top as you can see because I covered them in fruit and nobody will see that anyway!
Arrange the fruit anyway that you want! You can do a tart with one type of fruit like I did with the grapes or you can make them look fancier by fanning out your apples or peaches. I did a little special something to the apples, I sprinkle cinnamon on top and toss them into the oven so they are warm and soft.
Yum, Yum, Yum!
Set your table with all the tea fixings: tea pot, sugar bowl, fresh honey, treats, and tea cups with saucers. These tea cups are a family heirloom, I got them from my dad who passed them down to me from my grandmother. I love the delicate floral work on them and they make having tea even more special.
I hope you enjoyed making this simple recipe with me, let me know how your tea party goes!
Let's close our recipe time together with the perfect prayer for this feast day.
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears! Turn, then, O most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Mary, Queen of Heaven, Pray for Us!
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