summer fruit tart

One of the first books that helped me learn about vegetarian cooking was The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. Not a diet book, but with lots of great recipes.

Summer Fruit Tart

Make and cook your own crust or buy one pre-made. This week I used frozen puff pastry. I wanted to try filo dough, but... maybe next time. Make sure to read all the way through. Ingredients are listed for each layer so jelly is not mentioned until all the way at the end.

Filling (Enough for a 9 x14 pan and feeds 10ish)
8 oz cream cheese ( or similar)
1/4 cup sugar
Grated rind of one small lemon
Juice of that lemon (approx. 2 Tbs)
Beat together softened cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and grated rind.
Spread over pastry.

Fruit
Choose whatever fruit your muse leads you to.
This week I did peaches, small strawberries and blueberries
Also, plums, kiwi fruit, blackberries, grapes would work
Slice the fruit and arrange in rows.
Alternate colors and sizes
Start with the largest, then fill in the gaps with the smaller pieces.

Topping
1/2 cup jelly
Melt jelly in microwave (just 10-15 sec)
Brush it over the fruit.

Chill well

Serve on a nice plate and surround with any leftover fruit.

PS Pastry, If you want, you could make your own.
1/4 c butter or margarine
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
8 oz flour
pinch salt
ice water (about 1/2 cup)

Rub butter into flour
Add a bit water and mix
Repeat last step until you have a stiff dough
Put onto a lightly floured board

Chill

Roll into a 9 x 14 oblong
Put into a baking pan.
The crust should have a raised edge of 3/4 inch
Prick well with a fork

Chill

Cook in a hot oven 450 degrees F for 15-20 min

Chill

Take out of pie tin and put on an elegant plate.

On this website I found a new way to lay out the fruit. It is cool.
Rainbow tart.
I used two mandarin/tangarines/cuties, one kiwi, a bunch of strawberries, no raspberries and blackberries because there were no strawberries

http://www.thebakerchick.com/2014/03/my-favorite-fruit-tart/