Luscious Lemon and Berry Tart

If you don't own a fluted tart pan, go buy one. Seriously. Target carries them for around 10 bucks-ish, and it will make all of your wildest dreams come true. Basically, it's the lazy man's way to dress up a dessert with very little effort - press your dough in and bake, and voila, you get pretty edges. Make sure you get one with a removable bottom so that you can easily pop the side ring off to serve it. I originally got this recipe from a Betty Crocker mini recipe book I grabbed at the grocery check stand years ago. I have modified it slightly, and also prefer to use my own homemade lemon curd rather than purchased pre-fab stuff. It's worth the effort, and really is not difficult. My one point of advice in making lemon curd is to have all of your ingredients prepped before you begin cooking, because it's hard to stir and separate 6 egg yolks at the same time.



Cookie crust:
1 ½ cups flour
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1/4 cup finely ground pecans or almonds, optional

Mix crust ingredients together until dough forms. Press firmly and evenly against the bottom and side of ungreased 10 or 11 inch tart pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until light brown, cool.

Lemon curd:
½ cup sugar
1 T. cornstarch
1 ½ t. finely shredded lemon peel
3 T. lemon juice
3 T. water
3 beaten egg yolks
¼ cup butter, cut up

In a medium saucepan, stir together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in lemon peel, juice and water. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Stir half of the lemon mixture into egg yolks. Return the egg yolk mixture to the saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a gentle boil. Cook and stir for 2 more minutes, then remove from heat. Add butter pieces, stirring until melted. Cover surface with plastic wrap so that it doesn’t form a skin, and chill until cool (at least 1-2 hours).

Beat 1-8 oz. brick of cream cheese into the lemon curd until smooth, and spread over the cooled crust. Chill for at least an hour, until ready to serve. Just before serving, arrange a mixture of berries and other desired fruit on top. I think it's really great with raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. I couldn't find decent raspberries or blackberries yesterday, so that's why you see the plain jane version above. The kids had a great time helping arrange the berries. Happy eating!