Laura Hebert, owner of Miss Laura’s Tarts, says the recipe for her tarts was a God-given gift found in her recipe box years ago with no name or indication where it came from. The sweet dough hand pies, referred to as tarts in the old days, went from being a Hebert family favorite to a sell-out at markets. It all started with a simple suggestion. “I had some figs on the kitchen table and my daughter asked what I was going to do with them,” Laura recalls. “I had planned on selling them at the market, but she said I should use them in making some of my tarts for sale. So I did and sold out in a short time.”
The Kaplan resident has been making her tarts for 15 years, now offering 16 flavors, including customer favorites with fig, lemon, blackberry and apple filling. “If someone asks me to make a new filling, I’ll try it. If it sells, I’ll keep making it, and if it doesn’t, I don’t,” she says, recalling a raspberry flavor that wasn’t very popular.
Over the years, Laura has expanded her cottage foods to fig cakes, syrup cakes (a traditional Cajun dessert made with Steen’s syrup), pralines (which sell in no time) along with pickled beets, her much-loved chow chow and pecan pepper jelly. When asked about the popularity of her pickled quail eggs, she says, “I bought 600 eggs two weeks ago and they are already gone – I ordered 1,000 after that.”
Laura has acquired quite a fan following over the years, mostly repeat business. One taste and you’re hooked. At a recent fundraiser, her tarts were auctioned for over $10 apiece. She recalls, “I had one lady who was visiting from California, and she came to the Delcambre market and bought some tarts. The next year, she was visiting again and asked me to mail her some.” While Laura doesn’t ship her baked goods, orders can be phoned in and picked up.
Everything is made fresh, baked just a couple of days before the market. Laura doesn’t know how many tarts she makes each month; she gets so busy that she doesn’t count. But I can tell you, firsthand, her market table is full at the start and usually nearly empty before the market’s end.
A charter member of the Delcambre Seafood & Farmers Market, Miss Laura’s Tarts has been a vendor since its beginning. Amazingly, in those 12 years, Laura reveals that she’s missed only one market. “It’s a very nice market,” she says in a voice as sweet as her tarts. “I like the people, and there’s always beautiful music playing. I often invite others to come to the market, because they would enjoy it; it’s a good outing.”
Recent Comments