Strawberry Cream Cheese Tarts

I saw a lovely recipe on elmundoeats for Strawberry Cheese Tarts and I thought i would like to make them.  But rather than push pastry into tart tins I wanted to experiment with making some little cups by laying discs of pastry on an upturned muffin tray.  So that is what I did for my version.

That made some nice little pastry cups, even though they were a little uneven as I didn’t position each disk perfectly centred.  But the pastry was lovely and crisp but tender.  Then it was easy to make a cream cheese filling to go on top of a little strawberry jam.

Although there are quite a few steps to this recipe it is not difficult at all.  The little tarts are very tasty and perfect as a small dessert for afternoon tea, or some such.  

I made a little decoration on the top of mine, which didn’t look too bad at all.  But it is all about the taste and I think these tasted so very good indeed.

Ingredients:
for the pastry

• 60g(4tbsp+1 tsp) softened unsalted butter
• 40g(1.3 cup) icing sugar, sieved
• 1 medium egg yolk(large in USA)
• 130g(1 cup) plain flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

for the filling:

• 150g(3/4 cup minus 1 tbsp) cream cheese at room temperature
• 22g(3 tbsp) icing sugar
• 1 medium egg(large in USA)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 45ml(3 tbsp) cream or milk
• 4 tsp strawberry jam
• pink and green colouring if desired, for decoration.

Method:

1. Place the butter and icing sugar into a large bowl and cream together until combined.
2. Add the vanilla extract and egg yolk and mix until combined.
3. Add the flour, in three additions, carefully mixing until just combined.
4. When the dough has come together turn out onto some plastic wrap and pull together with your hands.
5. Wrap into the plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
6. Roll the dough, between two sheets of plastic wrap, out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch(5 mm) and  chill again for 20 minutes.
7. Preheat the oven to 170C/150C fan/340F.
8. Use a 3 inc(8 cm) scalloped cookie cutter to cut out 8 rounds, rolling the excess dough to make the full number.
9. Chill again for 20 minutes while the oven is preheating.
10. On an upturned muffin tin place each of the discs of pastry, centred as well as possible on the base of the muffin cups.
11. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, then remove and allow to cool for a couple of minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
12. Leave the oven on as you make the filling.
13. Place the cream cheese, icing sugar and cream into a bowl and whisk until fully combined.
14. Add the egg and vanilla and whisk again until fully combined.
15. Take about a tablespoon of the mixture into each of two small bowls and add some pink colour into one and green colour into the other.  Then stir each to mix in.
16. Place 1/2 teaspoon of jam into each pastry cup, in the centre and flatten a little.
17. Spoon the cream cheese mixture equally into each cup until all used.
18. Drip one spot of pink colour onto  the top centre of each cup and then use a tooth pick to put 2 thin green lines below the pink drop.
19. Drag a toothpick from above the pink, through it and through the green lines to make an image like a pink flower with green leave.
20. Transfer the tarts to a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes.
21. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Chill in the fridge before serving.