Individual Cheese Tarts

Individual Cheese Tarts

Ingredients

Pastry Dough

  • 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 4 tbsp. granulated sugar
  • 1/4 c. butter
  • 1/4 c. shortening
  • 4 to 6 tbsp. milk
  • 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Cheese Filling

  • 9-ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 4 tbsp. butter, softened to room temperature and cut into cubes
  • 2-ounces powdered sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1/2 c. whipped topping
  • 1/2 c. Wilton chocolate melting discs (or preferred melting chocolate)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
  2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Stir to mix well. Place in blender and cut in butter and shortening. Pulse 3 to 4 times until a coarse crumbly mixture appears. Transfer mixture back to mixing bowl.
  3. Sprinkle milk and vanilla extract over the mixture. Stir with a fork until the mixture is better moistened. Shape into a ball and place in refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour.
  4. Remove dough from fridge and using a rolling pin roll the dough out on a floured surface to a 1/8-inch thickness.
  5. Cut the dough to fit into 12 individual tart molds (1- or 2-inch molds). Press dough against the bottoms and sides of the tart molds and pierce the bottom of the pastry dough with a fork a couple of times.
  6. Next, prepare cheese mixture. In a blender, combine cream cheese, butter cubes, and powdered sugar. Blend until fluffy. 
  7. Drizzle in lemon juice and blend until smooth.
  8. Crack egg into blender; blend until smooth.
  9. The mixture may be a bit watery. That’s okay! Just set the cheese filling aside while you prepare whipped topping.
  10. In a metal mixing bowl,  prepare whipped topping mixture according to package directions and using an electric hand mixer, beat until stiff peaks form.
  11. Scoop the whipped topping in to the blender with the cheese filling and blend until fluffy and thick.
  12. Scoop cheese filling into a piping bag, using a wide enough tip or nozzle to pipe the cheese filling into the pastry tarts.  Pipe just enough cheese filling into each tart to fill the inside of the tart, don’t overfill the tarts.
  13. Place in preheated oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the dough is lightly  browned. When done, remove tarts from oven and set aside to cool for 5 minutes then place tarts in fridge to chill for 2 hours.
  14. Once tarts are chilled, melt chocolate and place melted chocolate in piping bag. Drizzle melted chocolate on the top of each pastry tart. The chocolate drizzle should harden quickly on the cold cheese surface. Chill until ready to serve.

0/5 (0 Reviews)
 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.