Strawberry and Cream Cheese Tarts

I've recently been on a bit of a desert making spree. During the Easter/Anzac Day long weekend I experimented with two different types of tarts. I don't normally do deserts entirely without recipes, I normally just bend and tweek but I was feeling adventurous and I had leftover cream cheese so I just sort of winged it. 

I love the light crunch that puff pastry brings to a dish and by brushing a little sugar syrup over the puff pastry before baking the shells take on a lovely light sweetness to compliment the cheese and strawberries. These tarts are really simple to make and can be whipped up within half an hour. Making them perfect for an impromptu desert.

Makes 8

Ingredients:
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp boiling water
250g cream cheese
12 tbsp icing sugar
3 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
12 strawberries

Method:
Preheat oven to 200ºC. Cut each sheet of puff pastry into four squares. Grease a muffin tray and press each piece of puff pastry into a hole. White sugar and boiling water and brush over each piece of puff pastry. Place in the oven and cook until golden.

Meanwhile place cream cheese, icing sugar, lemon juice and rind in a mix master or food processor and beat until well combined. Cut each strawberry into four.

Remove pastry casings from oven and allow to cool slightly. Add 2 tsp of cream cheese mixture in each casings. Place 6 pieces of strawberry onto and serve immediately. 

From Pinterest - Chairs

From left to right top to bottom:
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Snake
The Rising Chair
Sgarsul
Spring
Pavo
Loop Chair
LCP
MT3

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Augustin
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2D LED Pendant
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Apple Tarts with Almond and Brown Sugar

Continuing on with my desert spree from the long weekend I whipped up these tarts really quickly with what was in my fridge. They are really quick but do require a little fiddling with filo pastry. They were fantastic though especially with all sorts of apples just coming into season in Australia. I suggest you make some. You can substitute whatever pastry you want for the filo. I find the crispness of filo offsets the apples nicely.

Ingredients:

Makes 4

1 Granny Smith Apple cored and sliced

1 Pink Lady Apple cored and sliced

15 sheets Filo Pastry (Approximately)

4 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp slithered Almonds chopped or whizzed in the food processor

1 Tsp Cinnamon

Glaze:

2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp boiling water

Method:

Preheat oven to 200ºC. Grease a muffin tray. Mix together brown sugar, cinnamon and almonds. Spread mixture between random sheets of filo pastry reserving about 1/4 of the mixture. Cut pastry into four through all layers and place into individual muffin holes making sure to push pastry gently into corners. Arrange apple slices in pastry cases making sure there is an even mix of each apple in each tart. Sprinkle remaining sugar and almond mixture over apples and bake for 30mins until apples are cooked through and pastry is light golden.

Mix glaze ingredients together. Brush over tarts and serve with ice cream.