Triple Berry Shortbread Tart

I just made this triple berry shortbread tart and I have to say it just may be my favorite dessert!  This berry shortbread tart is a mixture of shortbread and berry preserves which are definitely two of my favorite things.

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Total Time: 1 hour

About this Shortbread Tart:

This shortbread tart, my mini cheesecake bites, creamy lemon bars and my classic carrot cake are some of my all time favorite desserts and I do not say this lightly.

I have made this shortbread tart in cookie form, bar form, tart pan form and it all comes out amazing.  I definitely end up eating a lot of the raw dough in this one just to make sure it it tastes great and because it is so good.  

These shortbread bars are made with a shortbread crust on the top and bottom and Triple berry preserves (mixed berry preserves) in the middle- super simple!   It is so simple that it uses one dough that you make and that is going to be your base crust and also your crumble.

Variations for this recipe

You can use any berry preserves you can find in your store. If you have time, you can make your own preserves which is really easy.

I like making preserves on the weekend. My recipe for mixed berry preserves uses frozen fruit and makes 2 (8 oz)  jars worth so I have some for this dessert and some for PB&J during the week (a favorite around here).

You can use any flavor preserves to make this shortbread tart recipe. I like to make this with my nectarine jam as well.

Some more ideas that would be good are raspberry preserves for a raspberry shortbread tart, strawberry preserves for a strawberry shortbread tart.

You get the point!

Ingredients

The ingredients for this one are real simple and you probably already have these items on hand.

• Butter
• All Purpose Flour
• Sugar (brown and white but if you only have white sugar that is fine)
• Berry preserves (any variety/flavor)
• salt
• almonds (optional)

How to make shortbread tart

Step 1: Combine Butter and Sugars together

Step 2: Add your flour to the butter sugar mixture

This will take a couple minutes with a mixer to get the flour and butter to form a dough. Be patient, sing a song or whatever helps you pass the time 🙂 The picture above is before mixing for a few minutes and the picture below is after it has been mixing for a bit.

It almost magically comes together all at once!

Now your dough is ready and you can go ahead and move on to dividing the dough in half inside your bowl. You will use half of your dough immediately for your crust.

The other half of your shortbread gets wrapped up and placed in the fridge until you are ready to add the crumble topping.

After you make your shortbread dough, it is time to prepare your crust:

Now that your shortbread dough is made, you are almost done with making this dessert! The next step is pressing the dough into your pan. Here is what it looks like pressed into my round tart pan.

You will bake it for about 20 minutes until you start to see the crust turn light brown all over. This step helps the crust set up and get crisp before we start to add those preserves. It prevents a mushy crust!

As you can see above, the crust is a beautiful light golden brown and now it will be ready for those preserves and crumble topping after it cools for a few minutes.

The last step to make this delicious berry shortbread tart is to add your toppings.

My daughter pointed out that this step looks a lot like a fruit pizza and she is right, it does! The shortbread is the crust and the preserves are the sauce. Instead of cheese topping we are using a crumble 🙂

Here are what those steps look like:

With a large spoon just gently spread those preserves all the way around your crust. Like a pizza, I like to leave a little edge exposed.

Then the last step before you are on your way to eating this delicious shortbread tart, adding that shortbread crumble. Remove the other half of the shortbread dough from the fridge and break off small pieces of it and crumble it over the top of your preserves.

Now it is ready to go in the oven and bake. Once it is done, you will want to let it cool a little to crisp up that shortbread. Some members of my household do not wait though and it is still amazing warm.

When it first comes out, you will see those preserves bubbling out between the cracks of the shortbread crumble!

For a closer look at the inside, I was able to save one piece from being eaten by my family. The bottom is nice and crisp and the top crumbles in your mouth.

The preserves are just the right amount and so good!

I love that this berry shortbread tart recipe doesn't need a special crumb topping that is different from the crust making it less work for me!  Using preserves also makes this a great recipe to have on hand since it works with so many things you already have in your pantry and refrigerator and it is insanely delicious. 

This shortbread tart is usually made in a square or rectangular pan for bars but I thought I would jazz it up using a tart pan to give it those pretty crimped edges. 

You can really use either!  You can make this for just your family or for a special occasion. 

If you do not have a round tart pan, here are some alternatives pans to make this berry shortbread dessert:

• A jelly roll pan. Just grease or butter your pan well and make these into berry shortbread bars!
• Pie pans work great too. A pie pan will give you these same pie shaped slices that the tart pan does.
• An 8x8 baking dish will work as well. Starting from the middle press the dough evenly across the bottom and a little up the sides of the baking dish.