Strawberry Tart

Hello friends! It is Friday! finally! The weekend is here and it's going to be a long weekend for most people in the USA! So... enjoy! But please, please If you drink (you don't need to though) but if you do... please, don't drive! I beg you!

Anyway... lighter topic instead of the drinking one because I get rather passionate about that one... So, first of all... did you enter my giveaway? It's almost over but you still have time so to enter just click here. Now... to our topic! ... Just the day before yesterday hubby told me he needed a CAKE for Friday for a meeting in his job! (I mean... he told me this like at 9 p.m. on Wednesday), and the cake he wanted me to make was my famous "Chocoflan Cake" which is delicious and not really that hard to make but it just involves some ingredients I didn't have at hand and TIME for baking (it bakes in a water bath  for two hours) but I thought I would just go to the store on Thursday, get the ingredients and then make and bake it at night when hubby came from work so it would cool completely and then be refrigerated... But then... the sun came out and it was a beautiful day! It was windy and really warm outside! It just felt like the perfect day to hit the pool! We had been wanting to enjoy a day of swimming but for one thing or another (girls being sick and stuff like that) we hadn't been able to, so yesterday I just took my girls to the pool and even had a friend and her son join us! It was a lot of fun! We splashed and enjoyed the water for almost 3 straight hours! I didn't even realize I was getting sunburned! But it was just sooo great, after that, my girls (and I) were hungry so we went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner....

We had a great time and my baby girl was ready to go to bed pretty early at night (awesome!) but I still had to make a "cake" for hubby's work... Good thing the pool and sunny day inspired me to make something different (and much faster to prepare) .... I knew it HAD TO HAVE strawberries... then I found the perfect recipe...

Strawberry Tart
Slightly Adapted from Martha Stewart Recipes

Ingredients

• For the Crust

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for handling dough
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

• For the Filling

  • 1 bar and 1/2 (12 ounces) cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. sugar
  •  2 pounds strawberries, hulled and halved
  • 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jelly

Directions

1. Make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, blend flour, butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt until moist crumbs form (this may take up to 1 minute). Transfer dough to a 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom.
2. With floured fingers, press dough evenly into pan and up sides. Dip a dry-measuring cup in flour, and use it to press dough firmly into bottom and against sides of pan. Freeze crust until firm, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Using a fork, prick crust all over. Bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes, pressing down gently once or twice with a spoon during baking if crust puffs up. Cool completely in pan.
4. Make the filling: In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese and remaining 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. sugar until smooth; spread mixture evenly in bottom of baked crust (still in tart pan).
5. Starting from outside edge, arrange strawberry halves, stemmed side down, on cream cheese.
6. In a small saucepan, heat jelly on medium-low until liquefied. Gently brush strawberries with jelly; let set at least 20 minutes. Chill in pan at least 1 hour (and up to 6 hours); remove from pan just before serving. (You can use a pizza cutter to slice) 

Hubby wasn't sure about this "Strawberry Tart" he is not fond of cheesecakes (so he was afraid it would be like that) plus he doesn't really care for "fruity desserts" but... I actually had to share this recipe because he JUST called me from work saying this was absolutely amazing! I was very happy everyone enjoyed it! It was easy to make and delicious! I hope you try it too! (Please let me know if you do!)

 I only had 1 pound of Strawberries, that's why there is space between each strawberry but if you do have the 2 pounds just go ahead and place them all right next to each other and it will also look even prettier!  Enjoy your weekend!

 © Paloma K.