My smiley cheese tart
Ingredients (for the crust):
225g plain flour
125g butter
50g icing sugar
1 egg, whisked
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Ingredients (for the filling):
250g cream cheese
20g butter
50g castor sugar
1 egg
Method (making crust):
- Place the butter at the room temperature until softened (if you stay in cold country like me, you better melt it using the stove or microwave cos this is faster). Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer over medium speed until the mixture is smooth, fluffy and light in colour.
- Add in the whisked egg, half at a time, beat over low speed. Add vanilla extract and mix it well.
- Sift in flour in 2 batches, make sure all ingredients combine well. Knead into a dough.
- Roll out the dough to a 1/2 cm thickness. Cut the dough with a cookie cutter (a bit smaller than your tart tin - I use the cover of my hot cocoa. Haha. No need purposely to go out and buy a cookie cutter).
- Line the dough in the middle of the tart tins. Lightly press dough with your thumbs (I use my fingers as well), starting from bottom then up to the sides. Trim away any excess dough (using a small spoon).
*I copy and paste those steps from my egg tarts recipe*
Extra final step is--Bake them for 10 minutes at 180°C (pastry turns yellow)
For me, my tart shells shrink after baking and I need to use my thumb to press them into the original size of tart shells. *Caution: Be careful of your thumbs - burning hot*
Method (making the filling)
- Beat cream cheese, butter and sugar together till light, add in egg and beat till well mixed.
- Spoon mixture into baked tart shells.
- Mix 1 tbsp cocoa powder with a small amount of water (until you get a thick paste).
- Dip the tip of a chopstick into paste and draw circle on top of the cheese or you can use your creativity to draw anything.
- Bake them for 10 minutes at 180°C (pastry turns light brown)
Have fun baking and eating *v*
