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.

A Fresh Start with Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

Wow, hold on just a moment. Let me dust away some of these cobwebs. There, that's a little better. It's been a while, huh? But I'm trying to get back in the cooking saddle around here and the best way to do that is to get back in the habit of sharing what I make again. I'm going to be a lot busier these days as we're gearing up for a trip at the end of June, and then I'll be starting school in the fall. My goal is to try and post twice a week. Sometimes it might just be a tip or trick for coming up with something fast and easy, since that's going to be key for me soon. And I'm using my handy-dandy iPhone for pics more often now, since I found having to upload from my camera seemed to be a point of procrastination for me. I'm debating making some other changes around the blog, so if things get a little wonky, it's just my inept html/css skills at work.

To start things off with a taste of summer I made some delicious cookies. I was planning on making them on Sunday to take with us to our Concert in the Garden picnic that evening. However we went to a lunchtime barbeque at Josh's dad's house that we didn't leave until late in the afternoon, which left me little time to do the baking. So I made them on my day off yesterday instead. The cookies were so good, and really easy to make. the most time consuming part was dicing the berries. I am admittedly very slow with knives though, so that might be specific to my kitchen. No creaming butter and sugar, no adding eggs. In fact, I'm happy to tell you that there are no eggs at all. Which makes it far less dangerous to eat the cookie batter. Which you will want to do, because it was so, so good. I recommend you bake most of the batter before you taste it though, because otherwise you might never find out what the baked cookies taste like.

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
Recipe from Martha Stewart Living June 2009; Makes about 3 dozen


12 ounces strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4-inch dice (2 cups)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup heavy cream
Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 7 tablespoons granulated sugar in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, or rub in with your fingers, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cream until dough starts to come together, then stir in strawberry mixture.
• Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment, spacing evenly apart. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, and bake until golden brown, 24 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool. Cookies are best served immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day.

My notes: I used my 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop to form my cookies, and I came about with roughly 28 cookies. I didn't have any sanding sugar, so I just gave them a little sprinkle with regular granulated. These cookies would be great for picnics, cookouts, even a brunch. If I was preparing them for more than just our own consumption I would have made some whipped cream to drop a dollop of on each cookie.