Summer Berry Fruit Tart

I always go overboard at Costco on the fruit. I don’t know if it’s the huge lots of fruit staring at me in the face…or the prices.

And I can’t stop at the 12 lbs of strawberries; I get the blueberries, the raspberries, and the blackberries. Then I get home and I realize I bit off more than I could chew…no pun intended.

Most times, I freeze the extra fruit we can’t eat, but if I have the time, I LOVE to make fruit tarts. I’ve made a few over the years….none of which I documented. I have no idea which crust recipes I have used….and I have no idea which custard filling recipe I have used. So this time, I had to start from the drawing board.

I used Dorie’s sweet tart dough, because I have used it before and I knew it was good. For the filling, I didn’t follow ‘fruit tart tradition’ and fill it with pastry cream. I’m not a huge fan of pastry cream. I’ve never done it right and every time it just tastes too ‘egg-y’ for me. Instead I made a cream cheese filling which paired with the fruit nicely.

Surprisingly, this is super easy. You could make the tart a day or two ahead of time, the filling comes together in minutes, and then top it with fruit. Voila…easy weeknight dessert!

I served this up for when my mother in law came over for dinner….and everyone loved it.

It’s the perfect summer dessert!

Berry Tart

2 ½ cups berries, washed and dried

Tart Dough:
Visit Dorie Greenspan’s blog for the recipe from when she hosted the French Pear Tart. I used her recipe. It’s TAH-DIE for!

Cream Filling:
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
4 oz. mascarpone cheese, room temperature
¼ cup sugar
1 ¼ cups Cool Whip topping

Directions: Beat the cream cheese, mascarpone cheese and sugar until well blended. Fold in the Cool Whip gently and fill the tart shell with the mixture. (If you don’t plan on assembling or serving until the next day, you can fold the Cool Whip in the cheese mixture when you are ready to fill)

TWD: Peach Tartlet

It’s TWD and a big thanks to Jessica from My Baking Heart for hosting this week!!

I decided to follow the ‘playing around’ section of this recipe because I bought a ton of peaches for the honey and peach ice cream (stay tuned it’s coming up next Tuesday!). I thought I would serve the two together but my hunger got the best of me mid-afternoon (before the ice cream was frozen) and I ate the tart. Before dinner.

I saved the other tart (as I only made two) for my husband to have after dinner anticipating that I would get to eat that one too as he usually eats one bite unless it’s a huge piece of chocolate something or other. So when I wandered into the kitchen late in the evening, he still had not eaten it. So I took a bite. When he saw me, he swooped into the kitchen and said “I thought that one was for me?” “Oh sorry”, I say with a mouth full of peachy tart. When I turned around….the tart was gone. GONE!

So needless to say, he loved it. I loved it.

Now a few things about this tart. First, it’s obvious that I used peaches and not apples. But you could use any similar fruit (pears, plums, apricots). And I would. I also added cinnamon sugar to the top. Because that is what I do.

Second, per request of Dorie, I bought ‘full butter’ pastry dough instead of Pepperidge Farm. I found mine at Trader Joe for $4.99 per the advice of the other bakers. I’m telling you—I shop Trader Joe weekly and have never noticed it. So I’m so thankful for our Q&A section on TWD—I always learn something. I will be buying this pastry dough from now on. It’s amazing. (Sorry guys, I was not motivated to try the pastry dough from scratch. Maybe next time. Because there WILL be a next time.)

The only thing I noticed about my tart that didn’t seem right was that it didn’t seem to rise as much as the picture in the book. I’m going to blame this on human error. I thought I was supposed to cut out rings to top the circle of pastry as I have seen this on a cooking show but I couldn’t get my geometry skills in tact to make sense of it. Since I had remaining dough—I just made cinnamon swirls ;)

If you would like the recipe, check out Jessica’s page! OR you can buy the book that all us Tuesday with Dorie bakers bake with!

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart 3 ways

I loved butter as a child. No matter how many times I got into trouble, every time I was out of my mother’s site, I would crawl up onto the kitchen table and eat the butter. By itself.

Not much has changed, I still love butter. (Although, I don’t sit on my kitchen table eating it by itself anymore that would be just plain weird.) I love the smell of butter and sugar mixing together, which is why I love this tart shell. It's buttery and it’s so easy for pastry dough, that it just doesn’t seem right. I left out the almonds…I don’t like almonds messing with my tart dough. It's a texture thing. Just my humble opinion.

Tart dough...I'm somewhat rustic when it comes to tart dough

Lemon dessert isn’t something I discovered I enjoyed until a year ago. I thought the only dessert out there was chocolate…and from the looks of TWD lately...you would think that chocolate WAS THE only dessert on this earth ;).

I didn’t use Meyer lemons like some of the other bakers. I would have loved to use Meyer lemons, but you see I’m leaving for Italy on Friday….and I am trying to use up whatever food stock I have before I leave.

I left the piff of the lemons off, as I received insider tips that it made this tart too bitter. I was sure to save all the zest…I mean….who would waste perfectly good zest? I tasted the batter….it tasted like delicious, sweet lemonade.

I made mini tarts….I figured it would make these easy to pawn off on my neighbors…who love lemon desserts. But since there were 4 tarts…I decided…why not make them different. So I added raspberries to one, blueberries another and two plain lemon tarts. I still had leftover lemon filling so I saved it and froze it for another occasion. I can’t wait for that lemon occasion.

My only problem was extracting the tarts from their pan….it’s possible I should have tried it while it was warm but I feared it would crumble in a million pieces. I think they may be permanently fixated in the pan…

I topped mine with powdered sugar for the photo op…but I plan on topping with whipped cream or crème fraiche when I serve this tonight after dinner. That is…if they make it that long.

Overall, this tart was very lemon-y (um...its called TARTEST Lemon tart for a reason)! If you like tart lemonade…you would love this. The texture is probably what I liked the most, really gooey caramel-y texture with the tart undertones (or really overtones in this instance) makes the dessert and I enjoyed it.

Thank you, Babette of Babette Feasts for hosting this lovely dessert this week. If you would like the recipe, be sure to check out Babette’s page or buy the book “Baking from My Home to Yours” by Dorie Greenspan. Be sure to check out the other bakers who diligently work each week with TWD!

I will be leaving Friday for Italy and out of the blogging world until after the Memorial Holiday….can’t wait to share our adventures with you! Don’t worry though; you can still check in on the other TWD bakers while I am gone!

Key Lime Tart

I’m still recovering from the crazed weekend at my house. I’m the holiday hoarder in my family..meaning, I like to be the host for every event. It’s a ton of work but it’s also fun for me.

The highlight of my parties is always the desert. No matter what, the dessert is what I concentrate most of my time on, and this Easter was no different.

My traditional Easter dessert contribution is sugar cookies and carrot cake but this year I wanted to veer from the path a bit. I have recently become a fan of citrus desserts and decided I would go out on a limb and attempt a key lime pie.

I didn’t really have any hiccups besides shopping for the key limes….as they are NO where to be found in Michigan. BUT, luckily, I was out to dinner with my husband on Friday and my favorite server in the world suggested buying the liquid key lime in a bottle. Normally, I would have never purchased a bottled lemon or lime anything because I think fresh is always best, but I found this bottle at a local gourmet market and decided it would be just fine. (I mean what other choice did I have at this point?)



The pie turned out amazing, and was enjoyed by all, including my non-lover of citrus dessert husband.

I think I would reduce the lime juice next time and possibly come up with a way to make the custard ‘fluffier’. All in all I enjoyed this and it was REALLY easy to make.





Key Lime Tart
Recipe derived from Joe’s Stone Crab Restaurant

Graham Cracker Crust
1/3 lb graham cracker (or 1 cup plus 2 1/2 Tablespoons graham cracker crumbs)
5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar

Filling
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons grated key lime zest
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice
¼ cup coconut, lightly toasted (I added this)

Chantilly Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

For the crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Get out a 9 inch tart pan. Put the graham crackers in a food processor (or you can put them in a plastic bag and break them up with a rolling pin). Process until the crackers become small crumbs. Add melted butter& sugar and pulse until combined. Press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of a tart pan, pressing down with your fingers works best and then push the crackers into the sides (you can use the bottom of a measuring cup for some of this as well). Bake the crust for about 8 minutes. Pull out of oven and add the toasted coconut to coat the top of the pie/tart shell. Then set aside while you prepare the filling.


For the filling:

In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks and lime zest on high until they become thick and fluffy and a pale yellow color. This will take about 5 minutes. Then slowly add the condensed milk while the mixer is running. Continue beating on high until the mixture becomes very thick. This should take about 4 minutes. Then lower the mixer speed and add the lime just ONLY until just combined. Turn off the mixer and pour the custard mixture into the prepared pie/tart crust. Be sure to check the beaters for lime zest that is left behind. Bake for 10 minutes or until the filling is just set. Cool on a wire rack then refrigerate. Freeze for 15-20 minutes before serving. Top with Chantilly cream.




Don't cover with plastic when you store this in the fridge --see the plastic marks? oops! Any suggestions?

For the cream: Whip the cream on high until you get soft peaks. Add sugar and vanilla. Whip until you get very stiff peaks. Put in a piping bag and decorate tart as desired.



Coming up next: Coconut cupcakes!

TWD: French Pear Tart

It’s officially the first TWD post of 2009 and Dorie herself is hosting this week for the French Pear Tart for Tuesday with Dorie's 1 year Blogiversary! “Hi Dorie!”


I was excited to make this because I absolutely love tarts. I love them so much that I have just about every size tart pan imaginable! (The girl at William Sonoma thought I was absolutely nuts when I registered for my wedding but…I couldn’t help myself!) I have made tarts a few times, however I have never ever made them the same way. So I was excited to try a new recipe once again. I have not, however, had a pear tart before nor have I made an almond cream. So this was new to me in that regard.


I made this tart in mini’s making just two of the mini tarts, and reserving the other two tarts with ‘dough only’ in the freezer to make another day!


I thought making this was rather easy, however I’m not sure I would make the almond cream in the food processor again because the FP bowl was too large to mix the cream together. I ended up switching it to my mini prep food processor half way through. Other than that, it was easy because Dorie always has a ton of information and explanations with her recipes that make it so easy (especially if you have no picture to base it on and have never made it before).

I didn’t adjust the recipe much because I was making dinner for the entire week in addition to this since I was having surgery on Monday so my mind and kitchen were on overload! ( One thing I changed was I used slivered almonds, not blanched because that was all I had, but I wouldn't recommend that because the skins made it too grainy) I DID manage to sprinkle with cinnamon and served with vanilla ice cream and it was SO GOOD!!! My husband and I both enjoyed it and I plan on making it again!


If you would like the recipe for the pear tart, you can visit Dorie Greenspan’s blog for the details, or of course, you can also buy her book, “Baking From My Home to Yours”.

Thanks for a great recipe Dorie! This one tops my list!




Sweet Tart Dough Steps:










Almond Cream Steps:





Preparing the pears: