#32 Fresh Fruit Tart

A walk through culinary memories or seasons reminded me of this tart that I have baked many times over. A tart is an ideal gift to take to a dinner party especially during the Holidays -is there anything sweeter in life than having your friends bake something that they think you will like and enjoy, something that will surprise and delight you? And if it is both simple to bake and makes an elegant package-------

What more could you want to give?

The recipe below comes from a magazine "Cooking with Paula Deen" by Paula Deen of course. She calls it a fresh fruit tart. Paula Deen is a celebrity chef on Food Network and has her own restaurant in Savannah called "The Lady and Sons". Once, while our family vacationed at Hilton Head Beach,  we took the ferry down to Savannah to visit "The Lady and Sons". The buffet with fried chicken, biscuits smothered in gravy and the collard greens are more scrumptious than I could imagine. We had the opportunity to see her and her sons that day with their Southern hospitality and the cosy atmosphere in the restaurant.  I remember having peach cobbler 'a la mode' for dessert and it was unmistakeably finger-licking good.

Anyway,  back to my tart recipe-----I’m tempted to call this a fruit tart cookie, because it’s a little like both, but you can call it whatever you like.  I have baked this tart in the Summer months,  adding fruits that I bought from the Farmers Market so they taste fresh and naturally sweet. Are you wondering what the lights are? It was just a few Diwali lights that I had lit up for the front of my home. The creamy smooth texture and fruity burst of tartness and the puffed up crust surrounding it makes it another heavenly treat. The tender-crumb in the middle is almost like a coarse cookie which is crunchy at the edges. Imagine it with whipped cream after dinner--- dreamy!! The inter-mingling of fresh fruits reminds me of a fruit salad on a cookie. I think of it as a nice munchie to eat in the afternoon, with a hot cup of tea. And in the morning, with coffee, it also makes a totally reasonable stand-in for buttered-and-jammed toast. This is a dessert that R enjoys with his coffee, so if I decide to keep it or bake a second one for him --it will be finished in no time. Although, the last time I cooked up the glaze according to Paula's recipe, I thought it was too tart and had too much leftover. So I took matters into my own hands and created a glaze with ingredients that were on hand in my kitchen.

Ingredients:
CRUST:
All-purpose Flour- 1 1/2 cups
Butter-1 1/2 sticks softened
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

FILLING:
Cream Cheese-1- 8oz package softened.
Sugar-1/2 cup
Vanilla extract- 1 tspn
FRUIT TOPPING:
Strawberries, Kiwi, raspberries, blackberries

GLAZE:
1 tspn Cornflour
Lime juice- 1Tblspn
Sugar- 1/4 cup
Orange Marmalade or Apricot Jam- 3 Tblspn

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food procesor, combine flour, butter and confectioners' sugar and process until the mixture forms a ball.
3. Press the dough evenly into a 12 " tart pan witha removable bottom,t aking care to push the crust unto the indentations in the sides.
4.Bake for 10-12 minutes until very light brown in color and cool.
5. Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract until smooth and spread over the crust.
6. Cut the strawberries into 1/4 inch slices and arrange around the edge of the crust. For the enxt circle use kiwi slices.
7. Fill in the spaces with blackberries and cluster raspberries in the center or vise-versa.
8. In a small pan, combine the glaze ingredients and cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, until clear and thick.
9. Let this cool. Brush the glaze over the fruit with a kitchen brush. Do not use all of the glaze.
10. Store the Tart in the refrigerator before slicing and serve each slice with a dollop of whipped cream.