Happy Labor Day!
Here’s a sweet treat that is not too sweet, and definitely the perfect end of a meal. I was inspired by my foodie girlfriend to make these after seeing her pictures go up on Facebook. So, give them a whirl!
There are two recipes, one for the blackberry croustade itself, and one for homemade cream to top it.
You’ll need:
Berries (fresh or frozen)
8 oz. Cream Cheese
2/3 Cup Sugar
1 Cup flour
For Cream
½ Pint Whipping Cream
1 t Vanilla
1/8 Cup Sugar
As much as I would have loved to make this dessert with fresh berries, I wanted the dessert more than I wanted to wait for them to come back into season. So, if you’re using frozen like me, first defrost the berries. Remember, this can be made with any kind of berry you like. I dumped the bag into a colander and set it over the sink, sprinkling the top with a little sugar to bring out the sweetness.
Next, make the cream so it has time to set up a bit in the fridge. Pour the whipping cream into a small to medium sized mixing bowl. (I dumped the whole carton since I got a mini size.) Add the vanilla and sugar little by little while making the mixture frothy with a whisk. Place it in the fridge to cool.
Finally, the dough. Yummm. Preheat your oven to 375. Combine cream cheese, sugar, and flour and get it well mixed, rolling out to parchment paper or your counter to flatten. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a heavy duty rolling pin on hand, so my crust was a little thicker than I’d like, but it still worked out. So, you can make the crust as thick or thin as you’d like to. Also, the mixture can be a little dry to work with, so I added a tiny bit of the fresh cream mixture to make it more pliable.
I made four individual ones, but you can make two larger sized croustades if you’d like. I simply cut the dough with a pizza cutter…
Loaded the berries on and brushed the whole tart with fresh cream…
And baked them for 30 minutes. (Or until the crust slightly browns.) Sooo… if you don’t have any fancy oven safe dishes that resemble mini pies, you can simply fold the dough over on top of each other as I did. I did have to put toothpicks in the top to keep them upright as they baked in the oven.
Top with fresh cream and serve immediately. So yummy!
