Strawberry Tart with Oatmeal Shortbread Crust and Chocolate Ganache

It was another Mystery Box week and summer brings some of the most tasty fruit add ons. ChuThis and I decided to share a flat of the most tasty strawberries ever. Of course half a flat of strawberries was much too much for me to eat before they started to go bad, so I decided to share them with Dessert Night.

ChuThis sent me a host of strawberry tart recipes - one with port sauce, one with balsalmic sauce, and the one that I chose for this week's dessert. Chocolate and strawberries is always a good combination. That's just what you find in this tart. It starts with an oatmeal shortbread crust that is like the best oatmeal cookie you've ever tasted. Then comes a layer of chocolate ganache to keep the crust from getting soggy and adding that rich chocolate taste that meshes so well with the strawberries. The marscapone cream comes next mixed with chocolate shavings. The final topping on the tart is nothing more than those tasty strawberries. They were ripe to the point of being so naturally sweet that they were just the perfect top to the creamy marscapone and the chocolate.

All in all, it was a very tasty dessert. If you'd like to make your own, check out Apartment Therapy's blog post here. The recipes are all over the place for this one so you'll have to kind of piece them together, but I promise that the result is worth it.

Mexican Brownies and Strawberry Rhubarb Tartlettes (again)

Dessert night again enjoyed some yummy desserts care of Pebble Beach Co. This week, we had Mexican Chocolate Brownies and Strawberry Rhubarb Tartlettes. They were very yummy! I really like the Strawberry Rhubarb Tartlettes. For some reason, they are really satisfying to me and aren't too too sweet.

Here's a photo of this week's poster child of dessert night Ryan making tea.


Next week, we will be enjoying a tasty treat from Carly! I can't wait to taste it. Stay tuned for more.

Beard Papas and Fresh Fruit Tart!

I want to start off by thanking Ryan and Tara sincerely for bringing dessert last night. They really could have shown up with anything random that happened to look like dessert and I would have appreciated it. Instead, they showed up with really yummy Beard Papas and a tasty fresh fruit tart with grapes and strawberries on it.

The Beard Papas were in the usual vanilla and chocolate flavors, but they also brought some of their specialty flavor of the night which was strawberry. They were all awesome. For those of you sitting here wondering what a Beard Papa is, it's a delectable cream puff that's filled with a very tasty custard-like cream. They pre-bake the pastry puffs and then fill them as you order them so they're very fresh. Here's a photo of the dessert night crew enjoying the cream puffs.


I love a good fruit tart. This one was a bit surprising. The inside of the crust was lined with a thin layer of chocolate and the outside of the crust was sprinkled with granulated sugar. It created a very tasty bottom. I would have liked to just eat the crust I think, but then I would have missed out on the rest of the amazing tart. The custard was just sweet enough to make sure that it didn't detract from the fruit and the sweetness of the grapes and strawberries rounded out the flavor.

All in all, it was a very tasty evening! Thanks again to Ryan and Tara for helping me out. Stay tuned for next week's tasty treat.

Cookies Galore Plus Strawberry Rhubarb Tartlettes

I was lazy this week. I'll be the first to admit it. With a VERY busy Labor Day weekend, I planned ahead and made a bunch of cookies last week and then reused them this week. If I had any self control, I wouldn't have put out all of the cookies and kept at least one flavor for this week. But I don't have any self control so we got to enjoy all of the cookies all over again.

My mom also snagged some really yummy Strawberry Rhubarb Tartlettes from the First Tee Open that they were working last week. Let me tell you, Pebble Beach Company makes amazing desserts. As usual, these tartlettes were really good. My dad also grabbed some really tasty frosted brownies that he's going to bring by later this week because I forgot them in the freezer at home. I'm sure we'll be enjoying these next week.

Here are some pics with the lovely bouquet that I got from Courtney's reception.


If you're looking for recipes for these cookies, please check out last week's post here.

Fig Goat Cheese and Thyme Tart

A while back when I asked for recipes for my just kidding I didn't move party, Candace sent me a recipe for a tart that she has really been wanting to try. I had a little extra time this week and I found that Whole Foods was having a sale on goat cheese which basically meant that the stars had aligned and I was supposed to make that tart.

The crust for the tart was the same recipe for crust that I had made before and had issue with it. Like before, the dough was so crumbly that it was impossible to roll out. I ended up giving up on rolling it out and just pressing it into the tart pan and doing my best to make it work like a tart. It turned out ok. I also didn't have pastry weights so luckily I had a jar of marbles that a friend gave me in college (so I could "lose my marbles") that I used as pastry weights instead. Here's a look at the crust....notice the large crevasses that definitely shouldn't be there. Something to work on next time.



The goat cheese was great and I seasoned it with a bit less cayenne pepper than the recipe called for and it wasn't spicy, but had good flavor. After baking however, it was really spicy, but in a good way, just not something that I was expecting in a dessert.


All in all, I think that Candace was really excited about her suggestion for a dessert night. Here's Candace enjoying the tart.


Feel free to send me recipes as they may become future dessert nights. In the meantime, if you want to make your own Fig Goat Cheese and Thyme tart, here's the recipe.

Almond Apricot Frangiopane Tartlets

This week, I was looking for something fast and easy that involved one of the great summer fruits that are in season now. Apricots are one of my favorite fruits for just a quick snack but I don't generally cook with them because they don't last that long in the fruit bowl. Since I bought these about an hour before I made the tarts, I didn't have time to eat all 9 apricots, leaving some for the tarts.


This recipe does include a recipe for pastry dough, but since I didn't have quite the right equipment, I used the ever trusty Pepperidge Farm pastry sheets. The almond frangiopane recipe is really easy. Just throw everything in the Quisinart and you're done. You should note that the frangiopane recipe makes a TON more than you need for these tarts.

In case people didn't like or were allergic to almonds, I made some tartlets without frangiopane and some with. Both were really good. Surprisingly, everyone liked the almond ones and the almond flavor didn't overpower the apricot flavor which was nice as well.

Here are some photos the tarts. You can find the recipe here.

Fresh Berry Tart

Since I was on vacation, I decided to undertake a slightly more challenging dessert this week. I wanted something that was light and summery with how hot it has been. When I was catching up on my Google Reader reading, I found a recipe for a fresh berry tart that sounded particularly yummy. I'd get to use the great summer berries which are generally my favorite on fruit tarts anyway.

I found red raspberries, blackberries and golden raspberries (yes, there are yellow raspberries and they're not a mythical fruit!). I also got blueberries, but decided to be selfish and keep them all for me. (If you ever really want to make me very happy, get one of those gigantic containers of blueberries from Costco. I will love you forever.)

This recipe is actually quite easy to make. It just has several steps. The cream is quite quick on the stove. Just make sure to keep whisking. As for the crust, it didn't turn out like I thought it would. It was very crumbly and tasted like shortbread. I think that next time I will either add a bit more water to the dough or wait a bit after taking it out of the fridge so it can defrost a bit.

All in all, it was really yummy. Please drool over the pics...




I had to take them quickly before people munched!

To make your own, go here.