Lemon Mascarpone Mini Tarts
It was bound to happen! When we embarked upon this journey, we knew there would be weekends where what we planned would get derailed for one reason or another. When Aubrey started working on weekends, we knew those chances would increase. Well, this weekend, Aubrey was sick all day on Saturday with a stomach bug (our baking day now that she works on Sundays). I felt really bad for her because she didn’t sleep all night and she was dead on her feet. We discussed my baking our selection for the week by myself, or, with a different helper but I knew she wanted to make what was on our list. I decided I would make something really simple without her. I was already making something to use up the frosting that we still had from last week’s cake.
Unfortunately, since I had already started making these before deciding to use them for this week’s blog…I don’t have many pictures! Not to mention that Aubrey is usually our photographer. That’s OK, the finished product is what matters anyway.
As I mentioned, these tarts use the lemon mascarpone frosting from last week’s limoncello cake (the frosting is like a mousse, it’s fluffy and light). We had so much left over that I was trying all week to figure out the best way to use it. Trust me, I don’t like throwing things away…especially stuff that tastes as good as that frosting!!! I debated making a boxed cake and using it but we had just finished a cake using that same frosting. I considered cookies but the frosting would have squished out while eating them since it was so soft. I decided I needed to make a tart but didn’t want to make a full one or even individual ones. (Again, I wasn’t originally planning to use this as our bake for the week so I was looking for quick and easy.)
Finally, I thought about a pecan tassie, only rather than using a pecan filling, use the lemon mascarpone frosting as my filling. I scoured my cook books and magazines looking for a recipe that sounded good…and easy! The recipe I landed on was in the Winter 2020 Taste of Home Holiday Cookies magazine. The recipe was for Cranberry Pecan Tassies. You can find the full recipe there.
I didn’t make any substitutes in the dough other than using a low fat cream cheese. I’m only including the steps for the tart shell but I promise, someday I will make these tassies because they look delicious!!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
Directions
- In a small bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth; gradually beat in flour. Refrigerate, covered, 30 minutes or until firm enough to shape.
- Preheat oven to 325°. Shape dough into 1-in. balls; place in greased mini-muffin cups. Press evenly onto bottoms and up sides of cups.
- Bake 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is set. Cool in pans 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool.
Our Experience
As I have already explained, I didn’t decide to use this as our baked item until I was halfway finished with it so the photos are limited. The filling was made last week (I tasted it to make sure it was still good…it was!! Yum!) I mixed the ingredients with a fork. I thought that the KitchenAid was overkill and getting any mixer out is sometimes just a hassle for small things. It went pretty quickly and was chilling in the refrigerator after about 6 minutes of work. I did add about a tablespoon of Splenda to the dough because the original recipe had a pretty sweet filling and the lemon filling wasn’t nearly as sweet.
I watched the baking pretty closely because I wasn’t sure how much time these would need since they weren’t filled. In the end, they took the same amount of time to bake the empty shells. The recipe makes 24.
I really need to get a bigger star tip!! These were difficult to get the frosting through, but I was determined!!
What we liked.
E. A. S. Y.
Our trifle was our easiest item yet, but these were very simple for actually baking something. Granted, the frosting was already made. That took a fair amount of time last week but it kept really well over the past week in the refrigerator. I think the components of these could be made ahead of time and the tarts assembled at the last minute with relative ease.
Once again, since this was a lemon dessert, it got 4 out of 4 from the family. Aubrey was able to have a bite eventually and she kept it down. 😉 The single bite size is perfect. Garrett took one down in seconds. He liked the raspberry on top best.
Being able to use up that delicious frosting was a bonus!! As I mentioned above, this frosting is much like a mousse. It is lemony (the flavor improved with time) and light. You could eat a whole bowl of it and it wouldn’t be too sweet or so rich you couldn’t eat more than a couple bites.
The tart cups were considered cookies in the original recipe but I didn’t consider these cookies because they had an unbaked filling. Without the pecan filling, they weren’t cookie sweet either. These were more like a mini pie crust than a cookie. They are buttery like a pastry too.
These will undoubtedly make it into our list of “party desserts” for sure.
What we would change.
First, I would change the fact that Aubrey was sick! Nobody likes it when their kids are sick and all you can do is wait it out!
As for the tarts, personally, I think they all need the raspberry or maybe a couple blueberries on top. Possibly a piece of candied lemon. I really liked the tart shell but if you like a sweeter dessert, you could add little more sugar/Splenda to the dough. (The original recipe had no sugar and I added about a tablespoon of Splenda in my version.)
What we learned.
For a dessert created to use up some leftovers, I think these are worth being a first time option for the lemon mascarpone frosting!
We are pretty easy going but this weekend reinforced our less regimented approach to this experience. We can change things on the fly and still get things done. A lesson worth learning.
Until next week, Happy Baking!