Flower Pudding Tarts

Flowers are blooming all over our house these days! We are just so excited for Spring! In case you missed it, we shared a bunch of beautiful paper flower crafts on Tuesday. And our new flower decor inspired us to spread the floral love into the kitchen, with these adorable and delicious Flower Pudding Tarts!

These cute, bite-sized flowers only require a few ingredients, and they are incredibly quick and easy to make. I love finding fun recipes that my daughter and I can make together. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the kitchen making these delicious Spring treats. We got a little bit messy with the flour while rolling out our pie crust, and we loved transforming our vanilla pudding into vibrant floral colors!

The best part, as you may have already guessed, was indulging in these delectable goodies. The flakiness of the pie crust, paired with the smooth creaminess of the vanilla pudding, is simply divine! They were a hit with the entire family.

This delightful Spring recipe was inspired by these Mini Lemon Flower Tarts over on Kid + Kin. I’ve never been a big fan of lemon creme or lemon curd…or any kind of lemon pie, for that matter. So…while I loved their idea for the flower tarts, I decided to switch up the filling. I know there are a lot of people out there who do enjoy lemony desserts, so if you are one of them, feel free to follow the above link to find the original recipe.

Ingredients:

Refrigerated Ready-To-Bake Pie Crust
3.4 oz. Box Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
Milk
Powdered Sugar (optional)
Food Coloring (optional)

Instructions:

Set your pie crust on the counter to bring it to room temperature. If the pie crust is refrigerated, this will take approximately 20-30 minutes. If the pie crust is frozen, this process will take between 60-90 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450° F. Spray a mini muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.
Once the pie crust has reached room temperature, place it flat on a lightly-floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the pie crust out, just a little bit, to make it a touch thinner.
Cut the flowers from the pie crust, using a flower cookie cutter. We used this 4″ flower cookie cutter. We were able to make a total of 12 flowers from one pie crust (after cutting out 9 flowers, we gathered the excess dough, rolled it back out, and cut 3 additional flowers).
Carefully place the flowers into the mini muffin pan, pressing the middle of each flower down into the cavity. Gently fold the flower petals down on top of the pan. Make sure to skip a cavity between flowers so that they have space, and do not overlap while baking. Using a fork, gently poke a few holes into the bottom of each flower.
Bake the flowers for 4-6 minutes. Make sure to keep a close eye on them, they bake fast!
Remove from the oven and carefully transfer to a cooling rack, to cool completely.
While the flowers are cooling, prepare the vanilla pudding by combining the instant pudding mix with 2-cups of milk (as per the box directions). Whisk the mixture until thoroughly combined.
We wanted to create a few different colors for our flowers, so we divided our pudding mixture into three cups, and used food coloring to create a vibrant purple, pink, and yellow. The vanilla pudding already has a yellow hue, so if you’re not one for adding food coloring to recipes, this step can be skipped.
Place the pudding in the refrigerator for 5 minutes, until set.
Once the flowers have completely cooled, feel free to sprinkle them with a dash of powdered sugar.
Working with one color of pudding at a time…spoon a few scoops of pudding into a Ziploc bag. Make a small cut in one corner of the bag, and gently pipe the pudding into the center of the flowers. Repeat this process for each remaining color of pudding.

These pudding tarts are best the day they are made, but they can be stored in an airtight container, in the refrigerator, for a couple of days.

I’m just in love with these colorful Spring treats! They make a wonderful afternoon snack, or light dessert. And they would be perfect for any springtime birthday parties or events. We will most definitely be making these flower pudding tarts again in the future…and by future, I mean tomorrow! 🙂 Yum!