What’s the difference between a tart and a torte?

For that matter, what’s the difference between torte-with-an-e and tort-without-an-e? Are they all edible?

Let’s see if we can straighten out the confusion.

A tart is an open pastry containing a filling. A torte is a multi-layered cake-like confection. They’re both edible (and extremely tasty—see recipe for Lemon Almond Tart below).

Tort is a legal term referring to a wrongful act or infringement of a right. You could try to eat the paper a tort was described on, but I wouldn’t recommend it!

But we’re not quite finished unpacking the meanings of these similar-sounding words.

A tart can also refer to a promiscuous woman: one who has had many sexual partners. A woman others would look down on. A woman polite society might consider to be “loose.”

But we should be careful before we slap anyone with a label such as this. We never know how God might use them.

John 4 tells us the story of the woman at the well. She could well have been termed a “tart” by others in her Samaritan village. She had had 5 husbands already, and was now living with a man she wasn’t married to.

But through an encounter with Jesus, she became what some consider to be the first evangelist. It happened after Jesus supernaturally divined her tawdry romantic history.

“Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ ” (John 4:28-29)

Verse 39 tells us that “many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony.”

Mary Magdalene had had a very troubled past, too; in fact, Luke 8:2 tells us that seven demons had been cast out of her. And yet she is mentioned by name in the gospels more often than most of the apostles. She was present at the death of Jesus and was given the honour of playing a key role at His resurrection.

What about Rahab the harlot? She helped the Hebrew spies evade capture in Jericho, and later became part of the human lineage of Christ.

In fact, God often uses unexpected people to accomplish His purposes.

It was old Sarah, not young Hagar, who became the mother of the child of promise, Isaac.

It was the unlovely and unloved Leah, not the beautiful Rachel, whose son Judah became the progenitor of the Messiah.

It was the barren Elizabeth who gave birth to John the Baptist.

And it was the uneducated disciples of Jesus rather than the well-schooled Pharisees who changed the world.

Tart, old, plain, barren, uneducated.

We shouldn’t dismiss people by slapping labels on them. As Max Lucado puts it: “To label is to libel.”

We don’t know what God has in store for ourselves or anyone else. He can use the most unlikely people in miraculous ways.

This should give us all hope!

Lemon Almond Tart

I couldn’t discuss tarts without giving you a recipe for one! Herewith, my recipe for a sweet lemony tart: the Ground Almonds in the filling give it extra protein.

Crust for 8-inch pie shell:

1 cup ground almonds
2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp butter, softened

Filling:

3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp stevia
1 Tbsp grated lemon rind (2 lemons)
1/2 cup lemon juice (2 lemons)
3/4 cup ground almonds, finely ground
1/4 cup melted butter, cooled

Crust:

Preheat oven to 400º F. In bowl mix all ingredients well. Press onto bottom and sides of pie plate. Bake 8 minutes or until golden. Cool.

Filling:

Whisk eggs, sugar, stevia, lemon rind and juice together well. Stir in ground almonds and melted butter. Pour into prepared crust.

Bake at 375º F for 25-30 minutes, or until filling is set and turning golden. Store in fridge.

© 2022 Lori J. Cartmell. All rights reserved.