Raspberry Cream Cheese Heart Tarts
Photo by: Catherine McCord, Weelicious.com
While you can easily buy your valentine a bag of sweet tarts with cute sayings printed on them, why not go to the store, buy fresh ingredients and then make something special with your kids instead? Putting a spin on Pop-Tarts, one of my childhood favorites, I came up with the idea of these homemade Heart Tarts. They're filled with fresh raspberries and topped with pink icing that’s made with the juice from the raspberries instead of food coloring. Click here to read more from Catherine McCord...
ingredients:
½ cup raspberries
¼ cup whipped cream cheese
1 Tbsp honey
1 (14-oz) premade pie crust (such as Pillsbury)
Water
1½ cups powdered sugar
10 raspberries for icing or 2 Tbsp juiced raspberries
1 Tbsp milk or water
¼ cup whipped cream cheese
1 Tbsp honey
1 (14-oz) premade pie crust (such as Pillsbury)
Water
1½ cups powdered sugar
10 raspberries for icing or 2 Tbsp juiced raspberries
1 Tbsp milk or water
directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Place the raspberries, cream cheese and honey in a bowl. Using the back of a fork, mash the raspberries with the cream cheese, leaving some pieces of raspberry intact.
3. Unroll the pie crust and using a heart-shaped cookie cutter (my heart cookie cutter is about the size of my fist), cut out hearts (or, if you are using homemade pie crust roll it ¼-inch thick and cut out hearts).
4. Place one heart on a lightly floured work surface and place 2 tsp of the cream cheese mixture in the very center, leaving a ¼-inch border around the cutout.
5. Lightly dip your index finger into a cup of water and "brush" the border with the water (this will allow the two sides of the heart to adhere to one another).
6. Top with another heart and take the tines of a fork and gently press down along the edges to adhere (making sure the cream cheese mixture stays inside the heart pocket). With a toothpick, poke some holes in the top of the heart to remove any air pockets.*
7. Place on a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until golden.
8. While the hearts are baking, take 10 raspberries, place in a strainer and press down with the back of a spoon to release raspberry juice into a bowl — should be about 2 Tbsp of juice depending on how juicy the raspberries are.
9. Whisk in the milk and slowly pour in the powdered sugar to make icing.
10. When cool, take a spoon and spread the raspberry icing over the hearts.
11. Serve.
*To freeze: Place hearts on a cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hour. Remove hearts and place in a Ziploc bag, label and freeze up to 3 months. When ready follow steps 7-11, adding an extra 3 minutes to the baking time.
KITCHEN COUNTER:
Makes 10-11 tarts.
For more fantastic kid-friendly recipes like this one, visit Catherine's blog, Weelicious.com.
