This is a Strawberry Tart Recipe made with a dreamy filling of cream cheese and whipped cream that’s been flavored with lemon juice and zest. This is easy to make and a perfect dessert for fresh strawberry season. Perfect dessert for Summer back-yard BBQ’s. Who doesn’t love strawberries and cream?
Is it just me, or does a Summer dessert automatically include strawberries? Or peaches once our Western Slope Palisade Peaches start to arrive in our markets?
My affection for fresh strawberry desserts could come from my Father’s love for Angel Food Cake topped with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. And I suppose to this day it’s my favorite. And truth be known, my favorite peach dessert is this Vanilla Roasted Peaches with Mascarpone which includes those little angel food type dessert shells. Whipped cream and fruit are a match made in heaven.
With that said, let’s talk about fresh strawberry season.
With this Strawberry Tart Recipe you’ll be combining many of your favorite things about a Summer dessert into a delightful strawberry tart. And the best thing about this is the filling. Whipped cream and cream cheese flavored with lemon make this strawberry dessert recipe a crowd pleaser for all of your Summer BBQ’s and potlucks.
The Tart Shell For This Strawberry Dessert
Of course you can make this dessert super easy by purchasing a pre-made pie crust. Or you could turn this into a super treat by making your own tart crust. I sincerely encourage you to choose the latter.
Don’t over work the dough. You want sheets of butter in the end result.
A homemade pie or tart crust is something every home cook should learn to make. And once you get the hang of it, it’s really quite easy and over the top delicious. And just look at it. It’s beautiful! Once cooked, it’s flaky and buttery and something you can really be proud of.
Take a look at my post for How To Make An All Butter Pie Crust. The classic French method I learned in Culinary School. For this recipe, since the filling is a no-bake filling, you’ll need to blind bake (pre-bake) the crust. You’ll also find instructions in the post on how to do this.
The Lemon Cream Cheese Filling
Once that pie crust is baked and waiting for the luscious lemon cream filling, this Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart comes together easily. All you need to do is:
- Bring the cream cheese to room temperature.
- Slice plenty of fresh strawberries.
- Get that mixer out and turn some heavy cream into whipped cream.
- Use a food processor to blend sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and cream cheese.
- Blend the cream cheese and the whipped cream together.
- Pour half of the lemon cream cheese filling into the tart shell.
- Layer with half of the sliced strawberries, then top off with the rest of the cream cheese mixture.
- Decorate the top of the tart with more fresh strawberries.
Don’t skimp on those strawberries. Fill half the tart shell with the cream cheese mixture and then pile on plenty of beautiful fresh sliced strawberries. You’ll finish this tart by using the rest of the cream cheese mixture to cover the fresh strawberries.
Then it’s time to decorate. I’ve made this Strawberry Tart Recipe twice, once decorated with strawberries that were cut in half, leaving the green tops for a rustic feel. Then sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Or you can top the tart with fresh sliced strawberries. When layering the sliced strawberries, start in the middle with the larger slices and build that design using smaller slices towards the out edges.
Strawberry Tart Recipe with Lemon Cream Cheese Filling
I hope you make the most out of fresh strawberry season and give this strawberry tart recipe a try. With a filling of lemon flavored cream, cream cheese and sliced strawberries the crowd will go wild over this one. And if you do make this recipe, please come back and give the recipe a star rating and leave a comment about your experience with the recipe.
And if you have a favorite strawberry dessert recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
- Colorado Creme with Fresh Strawberries
- Balsamic Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream
- or this recipe for Strawberry Lemon Blondies, from the View From Great Island
Strawberry Tart Recipe with Lemon Cream Cheese Filling
Ingredients
- 1 9″ Pie Crust
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice fresh
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest grated
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 pounds strawberries half for filling, half for topping.
Instructions
- Press pie dough into a 9″ tart shell. With a fork dock the dough by piercing it along the sides and bottom.
- Place the dough in the refrigerator for for at 30 minutes. Several hours or even overnight is even better. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Place a sheet of parchment paper over the dough. Fill the parchment covered tart shell with dried beans.
- Bake the shell for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and beans and cook for another 5 – 10 minutes or until crust is just starting to turn golden.
- Let the shell cool on a wire rack.
- In a food processor, process the cream cheese until fluffy. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and 3/4 cup sugar. Process until smooth. Scrape down sides of the processor with a rubber spatula as needed.
- Add the cream to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whip to soft peak stage. Fold cream cheese mixture into whipped cream.
- Place half of this mixture into the cooled tart shell. Layer half the strawberries over the layer. Cover the strawberries with the remaining half of the cream/cream cheese mixture.
- Arrange whole, halved, or sliced strawberries over the top of the tart. Chill 3 – 5 hours before serving.
