Something of a cheat of a recipe, using handy shortcuts, these gorgeous tarts can be made up very speedily and with total ease, yet they taste as good as any of the high-end tarts you can buy for a small fortune!
If you want a really speedy and easy sweet treat, these tarts do, I think, fit the bill.
They take moments to assemble and will store quite happily in the fridge for several hours, while retaining the crispness of the pastry.
Top tip:
You can, however brush some melted and cooled chocolate into the tart cases, let it set and then fill the cases if you want to make them further in advance. This acts as a barrier between the moist cheesecake and the crisp tarts.
Shortcuts! Oh the scandal
I almost never buy ready-made pastry, custards and the like but I wanted to see if I could use commonly found ingredients to create something that tasted as if you had slaved all day.
The shortcuts here were:
- pre-baked mini pastry cases – actually, these all-butter ones taste wonderful
- a near-instant lemon cheesecake filling with a little white chocolate and lemon curd
- a quick glaze made with lemon curd
Recipe: quick lemon cheesecake glazed fruit tarts
- pre-baked pastry cases: go for mini ones*, medium sized ones or one large one
filling:
- 500g cream cheese
- 2-3 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
- about 3 tablespoons best quality lemon curd
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100g white chocolate, melted and cooled
to top:
- fresh fruit of choice: raspberries, strawberries, passion fruit, blueberries…you can slice them thinly if they are large
to glaze and to finish:
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon curd
- about 1 tablespoon of water
- fresh mint leaves, optional
- chocolate shards, optional
*I used 50 mini pastry cases for this amount of filling.
(1) Put the filling ingredients into a bowl and whisk together until smooth: a balloon whisk is easiest. Or beat with a wooden spoon. Add more lemon juice, lemon curd or sugar if you feel it needs any of them. Cover with clingfilm and chill until needed.
(2) Spoon or pipe the filling into the cases, coming just below the top.
(3) Place the fruit on top in any way you choose.
(4) For the glaze, heat the lemon curd and water until the lemon curd has dissloved and you have a smooth liquid. I find this easier putting them in a small ramekin and heating in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds.
(5) Brush the glaze over the fruit. Serve when you are ready.
Phil's Home Kitchen 