6 August 2007

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

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16 comments:

  1. Oooooooooh, are there 2nd's left?

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  2. I gave 3/4 of it to my daughter Erin to share with her friends. My hips thanked me.

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  3. Looks delicious. Your pictures turned out amazing!

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  4. This looks wonderful!

    I've been looking for a good, basic fruit tart base recipe...and I think this will work splendidly. Thanks so much!

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  5. Hey! Thanks for the comment about my cakes... you are more than welcome to drop by for a slice if you are ever back in town! Say hi to your daughter for me!

    By the way, have you ever been to Stevenson outside of Richmond? All I can remember is the salmon fish & chips at the Sockeye City Diner... yum!

    Take Care, Sarah

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  6. What a great way to use up all these seasonal strawberries. YUM!

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  7. Next time I'm in town I'm checking out the Buddhist temple! I love looking at different religions.

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  8. That's a great lookin' tart you've got there.

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  9. That looks really good! You really have the chocolate drizzle down.

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  10. Oh! What a gorgeous tart! Gosh, you did such a beautiful job with it. I have anxiety when it comes to pastry as well, with the pecan tassie pastry being the only version I've conquered with any degree of confidence. This tart sure does look tempting...both to taste and to try to make. :-)

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  11. What a great job on the tart!! You should be proud! Now, when are you going to quit your day job and become a pastry chef?

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  12. You did a great job on that! Way to go.

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  13. This pie looks beautiful. You drizzled the chocolate over the fruit incredibly well, its so easy to make a mess when you are doing this task.

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  14. Hiya

    Brilliant to hear from you! Thanks for your comments. I have to say, this tart has me drooling. Really simple but so good to look at and, I'm assuming, amazing to eat. This one has now cemented on my mind and will be doing it over the Summer. Yes, the summer has started, just!

    Have you in my favourites now, thanks for getting in touch, isn't Blogging lovely?

    Cheers
    David

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  15. Ooh how pretty! What a beautiful pic!

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Welcome to my home. Thank you for choosing to stay a while and for sharing our lives through food. I appreciate all your support, comments, suggestions, and daily encouragement.

Val

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