Strawberry season is here and that means our home is filled with lots of goodies made with fresh strawberries! If your anything like me you are always looking for a new dessert recipe. Dinner just seems more exciting when something sweet follows.

I had several strawberry recipes racing through my mind, but this one stood out. I love the brightness that the flavors brings, and I love that it only has about a 1/2 cup of sugar for the entire tart!

My love for fruit came at an early age. My summers days were spent climbing apple and plum trees, running the woods, and wading in the creek. A lot of those days my evenings ended with stomach aches from the large amounts of blueberries, strawberries, mulberries, apples, plums and cherries, oh yeah and the sour grass I ate. It didn’t matter to me if it was ripe or green, I liked a good variety. I got many lectures in the evenings for all the unripe fruit and berries I ate. Now days I mostly like things ripe, but I do like an occasional handful of sour grass.

Strawberries pack lots of health benefits. They help maintain beautiful skin, protect against cancer, and defends against heart disease. Make sure to choose organic, strawberries  are on the list of the fruits and vegetables with the highest levels of pesticides.

You can also make this recipe in mini tart pans! They are so pretty!

Strawberry and Lemon Cream Tart

Crust

• 1 1/4 unbleached flour
• 1/4 tsp cardamomBuy cardamom here
• 1/2 tsp pink salt or sea salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 stick real butter (very cold)
• 4-5 tbsp ice water

Filling

• • • 1 block cream cheese ( at room temperature)
    • 1/3 cup sour cream
    • 1/2 cup whipping cream
    • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
    • Lemon zest from 2 whole lemons
    • Buy zesting tool here
    • 5 Tbsp powdered sugarI use this

Topping

• 3 cups sliced strawberries
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp cardamom

Directions

Crust

• Pre-heat oven to 350
• In a bowl mix flour, sugar, salt and cardamom.
• Cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter.
• When butter resembles corse meal, add in ice water one tablespoon at a time mixing with a spoon until mix starts to come together. (make sure not to add to much water or dough won’t be flaky)
• When it starts to come together, press together with your hand. Dough will come together, it should only take a couple minutes.
• Cover dough or place in a bag and put in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes or up to 48 hours.
• Place dough on a floured surface. (if dough was in the refrigerator for more than and hour let set at room temp for a few minutes.
• With a rolling pin roll out dough until its a 1/4 inch thick.I like this rolling pin
• Place in tart pan and take off any excess dough.Get tart pan here
• With a fork poke some holes in the bottom of the crust and weigh the bottom of the crust down with pie crust weights  or an oven safe plate or pan.get pie crust weights here
• Bake crust 20-25 minutes or until lightly brown. Set aside.

Filling 

• Place all ingredients for filling in a medium size bowl.
• With a hand mixer, mix on medium high for 6-8 minutes, until smooth. (you must mix entire time because of the whipping cream)
• place in the refrigerator while you prepare topping.

Topping

• In a small mixing bowl slice strawberries.
• Sprinkle sugar and cardamom over them.
• Stir.

Assemble

• Pour filling into a completely cool pie crust. Smooth with a rubber spatula.
• Arrange sliced strawberries on top as shown in the pictures.
• Place a whole strawberry in the middle.
• Serve cold.
• Store in the refrigerator.

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