Friday, April 5, 2013

Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts


There should be a law against so much goodness for so little effort.  This dessert just sort of happened when dear hubby brought home unexpected ingredients for a fresh strawberry pie I wanted to make for our church's Easter brunch.  A little experimenting here and there and presto-chango a beautiful, impressive dessert appeared.  Thanks to dear hubby for dreaming up the idea for a fruit tart, he's one smart cookie.

The first attempt at making these little fruit tarts was ok but not great.  I used strawberry spreadable fruit for a glaze, and for garnish I topped them with Redi-whip which disappeared within 5 minutes into a melted mess.  The tarts got snatched up and eaten anyway, despite their looks.

Since the tarts got eaten so quickly, and dear hubby really liked them, I thought a second attempt at making them was in order.  I made a few modifications to the recipe and now folks, we have a keeper recipe.  Easy, four ingredient dessert with an impressive presentation.



Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts
1 package of refrigerated Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough
1 package of fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled and quartered
1 package of fresh blueberries, rinsed
Raspberry spreadable fruit, about 1/4 cup
Optional: Favorite whipped topping for garnish.  I have been using Cool Whip since it holds up better than whipping cream.
Makes 12 tarts, but count on one breaking, so if you need 12, buy 2 packages of cookie dough.



Slice cookie dough into 12 equal pieces, form ball, flatten a little like a pancake, place in teflon coated muffin tin sprayed with a good squirt of butter cooking spray, and push the dough with your fingers to make a cup shape.


Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes, do not over bake, lightly browned is good.  Remove from oven and run sharp knife around cups, but do not remove until cooled, they will break if you do.  Place 3 pieces strawberry on each cup, then follow with blueberries, filling in any bare spots.  Heat spreadable fruit in microwave to melt, about 30 seconds, and put on one teaspoon over fruit.  Then use a pastry brush to glaze all of the fruit.  Top with your favorite whipped topping and enjoy!

Notes: the sugar cookie dough will puff up while it is baking...don't worry, keep cooking it and the dough will deflate.  If you under cook the dough the cookies will be difficult to remove from the pan. If they are a little warm and break while you are removing them from the pan, you can push the cookie back together.  Also, I have found that after they cool, if I cut around them again and twist at the same time, they seem to release easier, also if you use a good squirt of cooking butter spray they release alot easier.

More goodness, if you like cherries, see Easy Cherry Tarts








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