10 Minute Fruit Tart

This weekend was, well, far from what I expect of a weekend. Very little relaxing and yet very little accomplished. Most of our time was committed to other people, with very little left to ourselves, most of which went to sleep. Saturday was my father-in-law's birthday and we'd made plans to have dinner at their place Sunday night. They asked us on Saturday to bring the fruit tart that he wanted for dessert. I said sure thing, and then promptly didn't concern myself with it again until Sunday morning. We had a very late night Saturday, so we slept in quite a bit. When I arose I popped open my netbook to check the weekly ads for our grocery errands. And then I realized that most of the stores were closed for Easter. I'm a genius. Now, not only can I not buy my regular groceries, but I can't find the fruit tart that my father-in-law requested for his birthday. Luckily there was a Kroger in our neighborhood that was open, but they of course didn't have any fruit tarts in their bakery. Now I was faced with having to come up with something on my own. Let's be honest here, this tart isn't anything amazing. I more or less pulled a Sandra Lee on this one, which I'm not very excited about. But, it came together quickly, easily, and everyone really enjoyed it. So, I figured why not share it? It's getting warmer, and with warmer weather comes more picnics and cookouts. Maybe you'll need a quick dessert, and maybe this will be it. I'm going to give you the rundown of what I did and how I did it to get this thing together in 10 minutes, not so much a recipe as a process I guess.

10 Minute Fruit Tart

1 9 inch prepared graham cracker crust
1 large box instant vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pint strawberries, sliced
1 pint blueberries
1 pint raspberries

• Put the bowl you'll use for making whipped cream in the fridge to chill. Put your milk in the freezer. Rinse and pick over your berries.
• Take your milk out of the freezer; put your cream in the freezer. Combine your pudding mix and cold milk and follow the pudding's instructions; mine said to beat for 2 minutes, let set for at least 5. Once done beating put the bowl of pudding in the refrigerator. Remove your empty bowl and whipping cream from the fridge and freezer.
• Beat the whipping cream on medium-high until soft peaks form. Sprinkle the sugar and vanilla over the cream, and beat again until soft peaks form, being careful not to over-whip.
• Put your whipped cream in the refrigerator. Slice your strawberries to your desired size. By now the pudding should be set. Spread pudding evenly into the pie crust. Top with your fruit, in whatever design you'd like.
• If you want to go the extra step, I used a piping bag to pipe some of my whipped cream on top. I had some fruit leftover, and obviously plenty of whipped cream, which we topped the plated slices with at dinner. You could also spread a layer of whipped cream on top of the pudding and then top with the fruit, or keep all the whipped cream for the side. Whatever tickles your fancy.

My notes: Popping my milk, cream, and bowls in the fridge and freezer just helped things come together a little more quickly. Especially since I started on this as soon as I returned from the store, so my dairy products had been out of the cooler for a little while by that point. Homemade whipped cream takes so little time to make and I think it adds at least a little something to a dessert that relies so much on shortcut goods.

Banana Blueberry Muffins

The same weekend I made the Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes I had some over-ripe bananas and a pint of blueberries that needed to be put to good use. On the weekend I usually hate making dinner, but am more than happy to make breakfast since I don't have the opportunity to all week long. So, breakfast was the obvious use for the surplus fruit. I did some searching online and came across a recipe from Everyday Food that I thought would fit the bill perfectly. These muffins were in the January 2008 issue, but I apparently overlooked them. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of banana-flavored baked goods. Banana bread and I were never fast friends. But I needed to use these bananas up so I thought I'd give this recipe a go. These muffins were just sweet enough, and not too detrimental to your health thanks to the whole wheat and wheat germ. If you've got some bananas waiting to be used then I recommend you give these muffins a shot.

Healthy Banana-Blueberry Muffins
Recipe from Everyday Food; Makes 12














1 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 ripe bananas (about 1 pound)
1/3 cup reduced-fat (2 percent) milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup frozen blueberries

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a bowl, whisk together flours, wheat germ, baking soda, and salt.
• In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In another bowl, mash bananas with a fork (you should have 3/4 cup); stir in milk and vanilla.
• With mixer on low, alternately add flour mixture and banana mixture to butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined. Fold in frozen blueberries.
• Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 28 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Let cool in pan 10 minutes; transfer muffins to a rack to cool 10 minutes more.

My notes: I used soy milk instead of 2%, and I used fresh blueberries since I had them. This recipe was printed in January, which I assume is why they used frozen.

Have a Happy July 4th- with Blueberry Crumb Bars

I wanted to quickly share this treat with everyone for the holiday weekend. If you're like a lot of people, and okay maybe like myself, you might be having a last minute look around for something to take to that picnic/barbecue/cookout/fireworks extravaganza that you've been invited to this Independence Day. Look no further. In fact, you don't really even have to stick around here if you don't want to, because this recipe originally comes courtesy of Deb at Smitten Kitchen. If you read that blog, then you have probably already made these. How could you not? Her pictures nearly endangered my laptop due to the excessive drooling that occurred on sight. And truth be told these things live up to their photographic image. This is in fact the third time I've made these bars and I'm just now sharing them with you. Can I help it if any thoughts other than eating them went out the window, resulting in no photographs being taken? This time around I made these to take with us to Concert In The Garden last weekend. You may recall that last year I made these Fresh Peach Drop Cookies. I was tempted to make those again, but since we were doing a Friday concert this year I needed something I could make the night before and have no doubt of it holding up well till the next evening. These bars fit the bill perfectly. So, if you're even still here reading this and not already over at Deb's page drooling, here's the recipe. Make these. For reals.

P.S.- Since these are made with fruit they make a completely acceptable breakfast with a cup of coffee. No arguing, they do.

Blueberry Crumb Bars
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen; Makes a 9 x 13 pan















1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks), cubed
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 pan.
• In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or a pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan.
• In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the berries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berries.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

My notes: I have used both frozen and fresh blueberries for this recipe and both worked just fine. This time around I halved the recipe and used an 8 x 8 pan and fresh local berries. I think the fresh berries hold their shape a little bit better through the baking than the frozen, but that is completely unimportant as far as the flavor goes so feel free to use what you've got. Happy Fourth of July!

Lemon and Blueberry Yogurt Cake

This weekend I was in the mood to do some baking, and I was also in the mood to work on my cooking goals- to cook at least two recipes from all of my cookbooks this year. It was a really Springy day yesterday, great way to start off the month of March, which put me in the mood for something light and bright. I decided to try out Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake from The Barefoot Contessa At Home. While looking over the recipe I decided I would add a handful of the frozen blueberries I had- a special touch for Josh who loves blueberries. This turned out really good, although a little stouter than Ina's since my loaf pans dimensions are a bit wider than what the recipe called for. No matter, as it's all in the taste and the taste is great. Just finished off another slice before starting this post, as a matter of fact. :)

Lemon and Blueberry Yogurt Cake
Recipe from Ina Garten; Makes 1 loaf












1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole milk yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/4 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease over paper and flour the pan.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into one bowl. In another bowl, whisk the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan, sprinkle in the blueberries, and top with the rest of the batter. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the load comes out clean.
• Meanwhile, cook the 1/2 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.
• When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully, place cake on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

My notes: The recipe also called for a glaze of 1 cup confectioners sugar with 2 tablespoons lemon juice, but I wanted to keep it a little lighter. Instead once the first pouring with lemon-sugar mixture had finished dripping off the cake and had soaked in, I poured the mixture from the baking sheet back into the measuring cup and made another pass over the cake with it. Doubling it over gave it a nice soft glaze, but kept it feeling light since it's not a hard icing. I really like this cake, and Josh remarked on it's great flavor several times while eating his slice. Definitely going to make this recipe again.