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A super quick dessert ? Minimal effort ? Need to impress ? Easy to make and bake ?

This is the right pick then.. a super quick Strawberry Mascarapone tart. These are so easy to make – a cheat for the tart and a super quick filling.. Choose to decorate as you please. Top off with full strawberries on a side, or cut them like I have and drizzle the glaze on top for a glossy display.

Ingredients

For the recipe:-

Tart base – You can either use a store bought shortcrust pastry or make one your own. Obviously homemade is the best, but when you are running out of time, store-bought is a very good alternative. For the tart, I followed this recipe – https://www.abakingjourney.com/tartlet-shells

Place 1 & 2/3 cup of All purpose flour along with 1/2 cup cold, cubed butter and 1/2 cup of icing sugar in a food processor along with a pinch of salt. Pulse until the flour resembles breadcrumbs. Pour half of a beaten egg and pulse some more until it starts forming a dough. Keep adding the egg slowly and stop as soon as the flour balls up. Take it out of the food processor and roll it out into a ball. Make sure you do not knead the dough too much as it might melt the butter. Keep the dough in the fridge and chill for at least 1 hour. After an hour, roll the dough out in a rough rectangle shape and 3mm thick. Gently slide the rolled out dough onto a tart tin with a removable base. I like to use a rolling pin to cut out the excess dough from the sides of the tin. Prick the base with a fork gently and leave it to chill in the fridge for another 10 minutes. Set the oven to preheat at 180c. Line the tart with parchment paper and layer baking beans or uncooked beans or uncooked rice to weigh it down. This is called “blind bake” and helps to retain the shape. Bake the tart for 10 minutes then take out the parchment paper and the beans or rice and bake uncovered for another 5 minutes to brown lightly.

Filling – For the filling, I mixed 500gm mascarpone cheese with 1tsp of vanilla extract & 1/2 cup of sugar. I also added 1 tsp of lemon juice and a sprinkling of lemon jest to this. Mix this filling and refrigerate it until the tart is sufficiently cooled to fill.

Optional – add a tablespoon of Contreau for an extra kick. To make the filling lighter, mix half the cheese with whipped double cream or heavy cream.

After the tart is baked, I let it rest on the countertop to cool.

While my filling and tart were cooling and chilling out in the fridge, In a bowl marinate a cup of whole strawberries in 1/2 cup of sugar and set aside. After some time, you will notice liquid at the bottom of the bowl.

Glaze – In a sauce pan, add a handful of marinated strawberries, 1/2 cup of the liquid from the marinated strawberries. Bring this to a boil and let it simmer on low for 5-10minutes it takes a syrupy texture – slightly thick. Allow this to cool.

Assembling the tart – Fill the tart with the cheese filling and smooth out the top. Arrange the strawberries by layering the slices. I sliced the strawberries lengthwise so that they look like mini hearts. Lay them pointing in the same direction – looks better.
With a pastry brush, brush the glaze on top of the strawberries, careful as these are sticky . You can pour the glaze on top prior to layering the strawberries too, and then lay them on top. I believe that would be an easier option. Chill the tart in the fridge for at least 2 hours or until ready to serve.