The other night I was cooking dinner and decided that the meal was good enough and I didn’t need to make a dessert. After dinner, however, my stomach yelled, “Hey, what’s for dessert??” You’ve heard that call too, I’m sure. So what do you make in a hurry before the moment passes?
You make a fresh strawberry tart!
I always keep store bought puff pastry in the freezer. One of these days I’ll make my own and it will be much better but til then it’s puff pastry that comes in a roll and lives in my freezer.
Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?
I could have used a shortcrust dough and made a freeform tart but frozen puff pastry takes only a few minutes to prepare. I cut the pastry into squarish rectangles and if I’d been worried about looking brilliant I would have cut a 2nd layer for the raised edge. For the two of us I just folded it over and used this little free range beauty to egg wash the tarts.
I egg washed them and placed them in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Not sure why but I always do.
After I took the tray out of the fridge I spread strawberry jam as the bottom layer.
Then I put a thin layer of ricotta cheese and placed strawberries that I’d cut in half on top of that and then a dot of ricotta on top and drizzled with caramelized balsamic vinegar.
When I was at my last cooking class I bought some pastry dough cutters like this one. I cut out the leaf and placed it on the baking sheet and sprinkled demerara sugar on top and baked them for about 8 minutes. I added them to the tops of the tarts just for a bit of decoration.
This tart would be great with any berry or fruit or combination. I think I’ll try it with stewed rhubarb and strawberry next time.
- Frozen puff pastry
- strawberry jam
- ricotta cheese
- fresh strawberries
- caramelized balsamic vinegar
- Preheat oven 200C - 400F
- Thaw pastry
- Cut strawberries in half
- Spread baking paper on a cooking tray and spray with oil
- Cut pastry into squares and either cut strips to make a raised outer layer or fold over the edge of the puff pastry
- Egg yolk wash
- Place tray in fridge for 10 minutes
- Spread strawberry jam on tarts
- Add a teaspoon or two of ricotta cheese over jam
- Add several cut strawberries on top of ricotta
- Add small drop of ricotta on top
- Drizzle with caramelized balsamic vinegar
- Bake for 15 minutes until pastry is golden and puffed
Such a great idea, and I love how puff pastry just solves the dessert issue so quickly. Love the ricotta addition 🙂 thanks for sharing, I’ll now make sure to always have puff pastry in the freezer!
Yum! I love puff pastry for the ease of preparation of both savoury and sweet dishes. I can only imagine how lovely tge crusts taste with beautiful fresh strawberries! Yum
This is such a cute dessert! Perfect with all the strawberries in season, thanks for sharing 🙂
Stopping in with from Ask Ms Recipe. I’ve got a food linky on Marvelous Menu for you to link so we can visit each other. It’s posted on Monday, no need for menu anything food related is okay.
Until Next time,
Nina
Beautiful! I love the leaf cutouts =D
Strawberries aren’t in season yet in my area; but this recipe would be wonderful to use up those gorgeous summer berries. I LOVE balsamic vinegar with strawberries.
Looks SO good, pretty and on top of it, easy! Fantastic. Love the leaf cut-outs, too.
Such a great recipe and I love your photos. I need to get in the habit of keeping frozen puff pastry on hand. I remember once my wife got five or six boxes when a grocery store down the street was going out of business. I think she actually wipe out the remainder!
These tarts are so cute! Love the puff pastry leaf 🙂
These look absolutely delightful!
This is sort of a cheat’s dessert because it’s so easy if you have good puff pastry in the freezer. 🙂
Use rough puff pastry to make turnovers mille-feuilles cheese straws and cream horns or use it as a quiches and … When teaching how to make rough puff pastry Ive found that the only tricky part is getting my students to believe that the crumbly pile of butter flour and scant water will actually become a smooth workable dough.
I love everything about this. I’ve just recently started cooking with puff pastry and I love. Plus, I love your leaves. I have tons of small cookie cutters that would be perfect for this. Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing on A Well-Seasoned Life’s Sweet Indulgences Sunday.
http://www.wellseasonedlife.com/2011/07/sweet-indulgences-sunday-12.html
Um, YUM. I just made these. I used apricot jam because that’s what I had on hand. And I drizzled the ricotta with honey instead because I have an aversion to balsamic. I also piled more strawberries on top because I like my tarts bursting with fruit. EASY and genius! Thank you!
You beauty! I’mso glad you liked this and wasn’t it easy? and beautiful on the plate?