Strawberry Mascarpone Tart, with buttery, crunchy cookie-like crust, whipped mascarpone filling and fresh strawberries is a luscious and winning spring dessert!
Strawberry Mascarpone Tart
Ah, strawberry season has finally arrived. It’s no secret that strawberries are my favorite fruit and every year I look forward to April, when local stands with irresistible red berries and their intoxicating aroma begin to reopen.
And without a doubt, one of my favorite strawberry recipes is this delicious and easy Strawberry Mascarpone Tart. In fact, I promise you, you will fall in love with this quick and easy spring dessert, as well as every member of my family.
This is one of the first recipes I published once I started blogging few years ago. As a matter of fact, I make it every spring. It was screaming for a makeover, so I gave it one, just in time for a strawberry season. Also, I changed a recipe just a bit.
HOW TO MAKE STRAWBERRY MASCARPONE TART
This amazing Strawberry Mascarpone Tart is, without a doubt, perfect spring dessert. With cookie-like texture crust, delicious and creamy mascarpone filling and topped with ripe strawberries, and you’ll definitely ask for seconds. Let me guide you through a process of making this finger-licking dessert :).
First of all, let’s see which ingredients you need!
- all-purpose/plain flour
- butter, very cold
- egg, large, straight from the fridge
- powdered/confectioner’s sugar
- fresh strawberries
- mascarpone cheese
- heavy cream
- vanilla extract
- salt
HOW TO MAKE SIMPLE SWEET TART CRUST step-by-step!
The base of this recipe is a simple sweet tart crust. Buttery, crispy, and just a little sweet, it reminds you of a simple sugar cookies, and, by the way, it is a breeze to make. You will need just a handful of simple ingredient you probably already have at home. In this recipe I use whole egg, instead of egg yolk and heavy cream/water, so I don’t have to worry what to do with the egg white.
I like to use a food processor for this one, but if you don’t have one, that’s totally fine! Although, I found it much easier to use food processor, it can be made the old-fashioned way, by hand, using two forks or knifes or a pastry blender. But, please don’t do it with you bare hands, not only butter will soften to much due to the body heat, but also you will be left with a sticky mess.
First of all, combine the dry ingredients: flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Then, add in cold cubed butter and pulse few times until you have something that resembles coarse meal. Finally, add egg and keep pulsing until the dough starts to clump together, about 10-15 seconds. As soon as the dough has gathered itself into a ball, stop mixing.
Turn dough to a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. Flatten the dough with your hands to form a disc. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour. The dough must be completely chilled before being used.
Take dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to soften. On a lightly floured surface, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into an 28 cm (11-inch) circle, then place it gently into a 23 cm (9-inch) tart pan with a removable bottom, trimming away any excess.
With a fork, gently prick the dough several times. Cover pan with plastic wrap and place in the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes. Frozen dough is less prone to shrinking while baking. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 190°C (375°F). From this point, you can partially bake the crust or fully bake the crust. For this recipe we need fully baked tart crust, using a blind baking technique.
What is blind baking?
Blind baking is a term for prebaking a pie or a tart crust before adding the filling to it. Since the pastry puffs up during baking, you’ll need to bake it with pie weights, dry beans, or uncooked rice. Once the crust is set, you can remove the weights and let it finish cooking. Blind baking would prevent your crust from becoming soggy. Start with lining the dough with a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil or parchment paper, making sure to press foil tightly against the crust, covering the edges to prevent them from burning. Fill with pie weights/dried beans/uncooked rice.
Make sure the weights cover the entire bottom of the crust. Bake the lined crust about 15-20 minutes, until dry. Carefully remove the weights and foil.
For a partially baked crust, bake about 5 minutes longer, and for fully baked, about 10 minutes longer.
HOW TO MAKE WHIPPED MASCARPONE CREAM
First of all, make sure, heavy cream is straight from the fridge, while mascarpone is a bit softened so that it incorporates better. Take it out 15 minutes prior to making the filling. Start with adding the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl and whip on high speed until soft peaks form, then add the mascarpone cheese to the whipped cream and whip until stiff peaks form. It will happen fairly quickly.
HOW TO ASSEMBLY STRAWBERRY MASCARPONE TART
Be sure, that your crust is fully cooled before proceeding. Take the crust out of the tart pan, then spread it with whipped mascarpone cream, and arrange fresh strawberries on top, however you like. If desired, brush them with a bit of honey for a glossy finish.
TIPS FOR MAKING STRAWBERRY MASCARPONE TART
First of all, I always suggest using a kitchen scale. If you don’t have one, buy it! They are cheap and you will always ensure same results in baking.
Further, I suggest to use butter with high content of fat – European style butter with at least 82% fat for more flavorful crust.
In order to achieve the perfect results, it is really important that all of your ingredients are cold. In fact I like to put the butter in the freezer, 15 minutes prior make the dough.
I use Large eggs which are 55- 60 grams without a shell. In US it would be an XL egg.
FOR MORE EASY SPRING DESSERT RECIPES, TAKE A LOOK AT THESE…
Strawberry Galette
Strawberry Cobbler
Lemon Yogurt Tart
Lemon Bundt Cake with Berry Jam Filling
No-bake coconut, white chocolate and raspberry cake
→If you make this Strawberry Mascarpone Tart, please leave a comment, rate it and tag @mihaela_biteitquick on Instagram, because I would love to see what you baked!
Happy baking!
Strawberry Mascarpone Tart
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 200 grams all-purpose flour 7.05 oz
- 50 grams powdered sugar 1.76 oz
- pinch of salt
- 120 grams unsalted butter cold and cubed, 4.2 oz, 1/2 cup
- 1 egg large
For the filling
- 200 grams mascarpone cheese 7.05 oz
- 200 grams heavy cream 7.05 oz
- 40 grams powdered sugar 1.4 oz
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 500 grams fresh strawberries 17 oz
- 1 Tablespoon honey optional, for brushing the strawberries
Instructions
Crust:
- Combine the dry ingredients: flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Add in cold cubed butter and pulse few times until you have something that resembles coarse meal. Add egg and keep pulsing until the dough starts to clump together, about 10-15 seconds. As soon as the dough has gathered itself into a ball, stop mixing.
- Turn dough to a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. Flatten the dough with your hands to form a disc. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour. The dough must be completely chilled before being used.
- Take dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to soften. On a lightly floured surface, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into an 28 cm (11-inch) circle, then place it gently into a 23 cm (9-inch) tart pan with a removable bottom, trimming away any excess.
- With a fork, gently prick the dough several times. Cover pan with plastic wrap and place in the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 190°C (375°F).
- Line the dough with a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil or parchment paper, making sure to press foil tightly against the crust, covering the edges to prevent them from burning. Fill with pie weights/dried beans/uncooked rice. Make sure the weights cover the entire bottom of the crust. Bake the lined crust about 15-20 minutes, until dry. Carefully remove the weights and foil, and bake more for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Cover the edges with aluminum foil, if they start to brown too fast.
- Take it from the oven, and let cool completely.
Filling:
- Wash, dry and hull strawberries.
- Add the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and whip on high speed until soft peaks form, add the mascarpone cheese to the whipped cream and whip until stiff peaks form. It will happen fairly quickly.
- Take the crust out of the tart pan, then spread it with whipped mascarpone cream, and arrange fresh strawberries on top, however you like. If desired, brush them with a bit of honey for a glossy finish. Let it rest in the fridge 30 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
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