If at First You Don't Succeed.....

Strawberries and Cream Cheese Tart

My daughter was coming for dinner tonight and I wanted to make it a little special. Like the Greeks I make dessert only on special occasions...so, I think this qualified. I was browsing through all the wonderful blogs on the network and came across a pretty looking little tart. I had strawberries..I had chocolate...I had cream cheese..I had a plan. One thing you may have noticed of my blog there are very few sweet "thangs". I think baking requires exacting skills and I am more of a "throw it in and see what happens" girl. I don't get much practice at baking and am also trying to a be a good girl and keep away from too many sweets.

I do drool over all the baking sites and admire all the talented cooks out there. I flag all the wonderful cheesecakes, pies and moist cakes for must tries . Some day when those special occasions arise I might get to all of them. I found this Strawberries and Cream Cheese Tart on Nicole's site Baking Bites . It looked so good I had to try it!!!

It actually turned out. I even had to roll dough which usually causes anxiety and frustration, only because "it never seems to work out!!" The crust is more like shortbread and is quite forgiving. I found that it worked best for me using the food processor during this process. I even put the chocolate in a baggie and cut a little hole in the end to drizzle the melted chocolate. Trying to make it look "perty". I have learned a few things about baking over the years. If it wasn't for my hips I would try and try again more often!!

The night was all about experimentation. My daughter is a willing guinea pig so I tried a few new recipes. We had Watermelon Gazpacho for starters. I came up with my own recipe for this. We rated it a 10! The main course consisted of Poached Salmon with Piquant Sauce, Vegetarian Suffed Peppers(Zeytinyagli Biber Dolma) from Burcu over at Almost Turkish and corn on the cob. The rest is history!

THANKS FOR THE RECIPE NICOLE!!!! Like a proud mamma I took many photos of my "baby".

**Strawberries and Cream Cheese Tart**

Crust

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1/4 cup ice water

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Rub in the butter with your fingertips (I am all about the food processor..so pulse) until the mixture is crumbly and resembles wet sand. Stir in water, adding an additional tablespoon if necessary, until dough starts to come together and clumps easily.

2. Press dough into a disc and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper and press into a 9 or 10-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom. Pastry will be a bit thinner with a 10-inch pan.

3. Place tart pan on baking sheet and place a piece of aluminum foil on top of pastry. Fill foil with pie weights (or uncooked beans/lentils) and bake for 12 minutes. (there was no oven temperature so I tried it at 300F)
Remove foil and weights and continue baking for 25 - 30 minutes, until golden brown. (May need an extra minute if using a 10-inch pan).

Cool completely.

Filling

• Approximately 6-oz dark chocolate (I used milk chocolate)
• 8 -oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream or 1 tsp vanilla and 2 tablespoons milk
• Approximately 2 pints fresh strawberries, sliced

1. Melt 4 ounces chocolate in a double boiler of in a small microwaveable bowl. Pour into crust. Spread evenly to coat the bottom with a thin layer of chocolate.

2. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until cool and firm.

3. Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and Bailey's in a large bowl until smooth. Pour into cooled crust.

4. Top cream cheese filling with sliced berries (or other fruit). Melt remaining chocolate and drizzle over the berries.

5. Refrigerate tart for at least 30 minutes, or until ready to serve.

Serves 10