Thursday, January 8, 2009

Blackberry and Cottage Cheese Tart with Hazelnut Crust

I love cottage cheese. Tim picked up some cottage cheese from the store, but accidentally one with high milkfat, which doesn't make a light midday snack. With perfectly good cottage cheese in the fridge and no one to eat it for a snack, I thought why not use it in a dessert?

I modified the tart dough from Martha Stewart's baking handbook by substituting 1/4 cup of flour out for 1/4 cup of ground hazelnuts and adding some lemon zest.

Ingredients:
Dough
  • 6 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 1/4 cups of flour
  • 1/4 cup ground hazelnuts
  • Lemon zest of one lemon
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
Filling
  • 1 1/2 cups of cottage cheese
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • Lemon juice from half a lemon
  • 2 cups blackberries
  • 1 tablespoon Honey
How to:
  1. Starting with the dough, use an electric mixer and mix the powdered sugar and butter. Once its well incorporated add in the egg yolks and half of the flour. Slowly add the hazelnuts, the rest of the flour and lemon zest. Transfer the dough in plastic wrap and chill overnight.
  2. Roll chilled dough out on a liberally floured surface. Place dough in tart pan with a removable bottom and trim the dough around the edges. Dust the excess flour off of the dough with a pastry brush. Make a few fork pricks on the bottom and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  4. Place a piece of parchment paper (leaving about a one inch overhang) over the tart pan and fill with dried beans. Bake the crust for about 15 minutes, remove from the oven and remove the beans and parchment. Continue baking for another 15 minutes. Cool completely.
  5. For the filling, blend the cottage cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon juice (reserving 1 tablespoon for glaze) in a food processor until all smooth (about 30 seconds). Spread the mixture in the tart crust.
  6. Arrange blackberries in the tart.
  7. Heat the honey and remaining lemon juice just before it boils. Using a pastry brush, glaze the berries.
  8. Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. Wow, this looks great! And since I just learned how to make tarts last week (not kidding) I need another recipe.

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  2. This looks fantastic! Can I have a piece? ;)

    This thing could take on sooo many toppings. Like lemon curd. Oh, lemon curd. Why do I have to be on a diet?!

    PS-I'm taking a crash course in SAS this week!

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