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Blue Cheesy Swirl Tarts

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(total ratings: 2)
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Servings: 24 Mini Tartlets or 12 Small Tarts
 
Comments:
A delicious finish after dinner or served anytime. Have during a tea or coffee break. Enjoy !

Ingredients:
For Sweet Pastry Tart Shells:
250gm (8-9 ounces or 2 sticks PLUS 1 tablespoon) good quality unsalted butter, chilled
110gm (4 ounces) icing sugar (powdered sugar), sifted and chilled
410gm (14 1/2 oz. OR almost 2 cups) cake flour, chilled
1 1/2 Tbsp. Carnation or Nestle powdered milk, chilled before use
1 large egg, beaten and chilled before use

For Cream Cheese Filling:
500gm cream cheese ( Six- 3oz. packages), softened and at room temperature
100gm (3 1/2oz. or almost 1/2 cup) superfine granulated sugar
2 large eggs
50gm (4 tablespoons or 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
7 Tbsp. heavy cream
1 tsp. lemon juice

For Swirl Design:
1 can Blueberry Pie Filling or,
1 can Strawberry Pie Filling
(Place pie filling in blender and puree until very smooth)

Note: You can use either blueberry or strawberry pie filling for the "Swirl" design on top of the tarts, or you can use a combination of blueberry AND strawberry pureed pie filling. The combination of both is what is shown in the above photo.

Instructions:
Sweet Pastry For Tart Shells:
Place all Dry ingredients AND butter in a food processor; gradually add beaten egg a little at a time until a soft pastry is achieved; you might not need all the beaten egg. At this stage the mixture might look crumbly, but this is fine.

Place pastry in a zip-lock bag and let rest in refridgerator for 20-30 minutes or longer.

Roll our pastry in between 2 plastic sheets, or between 2 sheets of waxed or parchment paper (to avoid any unnecessary mess to clear up) to a thickness of 0.5cm (1/8 of an inch) and use a small (approximately 3 inch cutter) tart or cookie cutter to cut. Place in individual tart moulds, press down a little on base and up sides of the mold to ensure pastry fits snuggly into mold; level off any excess pastry on sides with a butter knife. Prick pastry with a fork and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C (350 degrees F) for 10 minutes, or until golden brown in colour.

Cool tarts completely and unmold. Fill with cream cheese mixture when pastry shells are completely cool.

Note: If making baked pastry shells for another time, shells may be kept in an air-tight container and kept in the refridgerator for about 1 week, or wrapped nicely in air-tight containers and frozen for about 2 months. Any time you need to use the shells, just thaw them in the refridgerator overnite and re-heat them in a pre-heated 180 degree C (350 F) oven for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

NOTE: My little tart moulds are 3cm (1 1/2 inch) in diameter with grooved sides not unlike a miniature turks head mould.



For The Cream Cheese Filling:

In an electric mixer, mix cream cheese with sugar, then add butter until evenly mixed.
Add eggs one at a time, followed by heavy cream and then the lemon juice; beat until smooth and fluffy.

Pipe cream cheese filling into completely cooled pastry shells to almost the top.

MAKING THE "FAT SPIDER" or "Swirled" DESIGN ON TOP OF CREAM CHEESE:
Pipe a rounded dot of the Blueberry or Strawberry pureed pie filling (you can use a combination of both fruits if you desire) in the centre of the cream cheese filling, about 1/2 inch in diameter or spoon in the blended filling using two teaspoons. From the edges of this dot, place a skewer or thin wooden stick slightly inside the dot and pull the blended pureed filling outwards, making a line trail until 1/8 of an inch from the edge of the tartlet shell. This will leave a border of plain cream cheese at the edges of the tartlet shell. Then move approximately 1/8 inch forward and do the next line, and so on until a circle of lines are achieved, leaving a smaller dot of the blended pureed filling in the centre, which is the fat spider...voila !!

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170 degrees C (340 F) for 7 minutes.

Leave to cool on a wire rack and then chill in refridgerator until ready to serve, or if the weather is cold, tarts may be left out until ready to serve.

Enjoy !


Photo taken by: Diana Baker Woodall

Source: Zue Hussin
Submitted By: Zue Hussin
Date: June 19, 2002

Reviews

Reviewer: Rosie Davalos
Rating: 
 
Reviewer: Nerry
Rating: 
Review:
Nice. Thanks Diana for the wonderful recipes!

 

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