Monday, November 12, 2012

Mini Strawberry Cheese Tarts

Anyone who love cheesecakes, would love this cheese tarts. I got this recipe from Masam Manis food blog. She's the most intricate home baker and loving mother I've ever seen. She is my inspiration in the kitchen.

Cheese Tarts was getting popular in FaceBook. I saw so many people selling them. When I was visiting relatives and friends places, during the last Hari Raya celebration, these was quite a hit.

I'm not the type of person who adores cheesecakes as I find them a little too heavy for me. I would have half a slice or even lesser and surrender it to my hubby.

But these Cheese Tarts are small, bite-size, not sweet and the filling you choose are endless. I love that the crust are crunchy even after I refrigerate them. The only additional tools you need to have are the mini tart molds. And here in Singapore, these are easily found at any bakery supplies shop selling at 50s or 100s.

I had so much fun baking these. My little girl have slighty grown and she loves "helping" me clearing the dough.

There she is! Ready for bed but too busy helping Mummy.


Honestly, now I usually bake at night after my baby's gone to bed. But some things just needed an early start so I could wrap up early too. But above all, I enjoyed her company the most. She made me feel like, I've taught her something.

So here is the recipe , I promised to share. But if you need a more detailed step by step photos, please refer to the to this link. (It's in Malay language though)

Strawberry Cheese Tart
from Masam Manis

Tart Shells

170gm margarine or butter ( I always use butter )
50gm icing sugar
1 egg Grade C
290gm plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Tart molds - about 50 depending on the size you have.

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Beat butter and sugar with a wooden spoon or spatula. Do not beat them for too long, just until all incorporated..
Add egg and vanilla essence. Beat with a wooden spoon.
Stir in the flour bit by bit. Once it's all lumped up.
Knead to form a soft dough.
The quantity of your tart shells depends on the softness of the dough.
To get a good dough put the dough in a plastic bag and store in the fridge overnight otherwise, refrigerate it for about at least half hour.
Once chilling is done, take some dough and press into the tart mold.
Prick them with a fork before baking them.
Bake at 170C temperature for about 20 to 25 minutes or until cooked and slightly golden.

For the shells, you are able to prepare them upto 2 weeks ahead.You have to wait till the crust to really cool down and you may store it in an airtight container.

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Start preparing fillings that you love. Commonly blueberry, strawberry, chocolate, kiwi, orange or pineapple jam can be used for this tart.

Fill the fillings in a piping bag to facilitate the process and pipe it out in the shells. The more fillings you fill, the tastier your tarts gonna be. But if you prefer more cheese than fill in moderately.


Cream Cheese Fillings

250gm cream cheese
50gm caster sugar
1 egg Size B
½ teaspoon of vanilla essence / lemon essence

Remove cream cheese 20 ~ 30 minutes before use. DO NOT let the cream cheese reach room temperature.
Beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy.
Add egg and vanilla essence and beat till well blended.


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Enter the cheese fillings into the tart shell To simplify this step we use the same method as filling the jam. Pour the cheese filling in a  piping bag and squeeze them into the shell till all jam are covered and the tarts are full.

Then we can start decorating the top of the tarts. The process required some coloring but I just pipe put some leftover jam filling at the top to create the gel like marble design.

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Bake for 5 - 7 minutes at 170C. Touch the cream cheese with your sfingertips. If it does not sticks to your finger, means that your cream cheese are cooked. Otherwise, bake further for another minute.

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For this recipe, the dough mixture can give you about 40 - 50 shells. Still it depends on the size of your molds and the thickness of your shells. 
For the cream cheese mixture, it's able to filled up about 70 to 80 shells.
To stabilize you can make 2 batches of the crust and 1 batch of Cream cheese mixture or versi versa.

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Once all the Cheese tarts are cooled, stored in an airtight container and place in the refrigerator which could last up for 2 weeks or for my case till the container is empty.


Happy trying!!


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