Fresh Berry Tart with Lemon Mascarpone Cream and a Shortbread Crust

This show stopping tart is light, fresh, and delicious. This tart is easy to make because you don't need pie weights when you blind bake the crust (blind baking is baking a crust without any filling), and the filling is so much easier to make than creme patisserie. Perfect for dinner parties.

adapted from www.joyofbaking.com and Amy Wisniewski

For the Crust

• 1 Stick, 8 tbsp, (113g) unsalted butter, melted

• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

• Pinch of kosher salt

• 1 1/4 cups (150g) all-purpose flour,

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• ½ cup (113g) jam (of your choice)

For the Filling

• 1 cup heavy cream

• ½ cup mascarpone cheese

• Zest of 1 lemon

• Confectioners’/powdered/icing sugar to taste

For the topping

• 24 oz (4 small packages) berries of choice

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine all crust ingredients, except the jam.

3. Mix until a dough forms.

4. Press dough into a 9 inch tart pan.

5. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 30 minutes.

6. Upon taking it out of the freezer, use a fork to press holes around the whole tart. This keeps the tart from bubbling up.

7. Bake about 25 minutes, until golden brown.

8. Keep tart shell in pan, and cool on a wire rack.

9. While the tart is cooling, mix jam with ¼ cup of water.

10. Melt jam and water together in a small saucepan on low heat, stirring until combined.

11. While the crust is still cooling, brush the warm jelly with a pastry brush all over the inside and the inside edges of the crust. This keeps the crust from getting soggy when the filling is added.

12. Cool completely.

13. In a large mixing bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer, whip ½ cup heavy cream to soft peaks.

14. Separately whisk together the rest of the heavy cream and the mascarpone until combined.

15. Add the mascarpone mixture and the lemon zest into the whipped cream and whip to stiff peaks, adding confectioners’ sugar to taste

16. Using the back of a spoon or an offset spatula, spread filling onto the cooled pie shell

17. Top as you like with fresh berries. (I like concentric circles of alternating berries).

18. Chill up to 6 hours, taking the tart out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.