Cherry and Lemon Creamcheese Tarts

Some time between this post and now, I fell off the diet wagon. I'm still 15 or 20 pounds heavier than I'd like to be and it shows no signs of falling off my butt all on its own. My real weakness is sweets. And creamy stuff. And sweet creamy stuff.

Plus, it's been like 33 degrees for weeks now and when it's that hot I really am not keen on eating heavy stuff or heating up the house to bake rich goodies.

So tonight, I called upon an old trick to lighten up desserts - making little tart shells out of phyllo dough and came up with this beauty, a variation on a much fattier dessert I have been known to make using a rich pate sable crust and full fat cream, that'll see us through summer. Or at least the next couple of weeks while we use up the extra tart shells I made.

You could use any kind of berry or fruit in place of the cherries, although I really think the lemon cream goes very well with the cherries. You could substitute lime or orange or grapefruit peel. I think lime cream would go very nicely with strawberries and orange might be nice with raspberry. If (unlike me) you're not feeling like there's more of you than there should be, you could substitute creamier ingredients and real pastry, although the low fat version is definitely nice and light for this hot summer weather, not just for dieters.

I must also take a moment to say that several gadgets I use in preparing this recipe are a must-have in my kitchen: my spring loaded olive/cherry pitter ($15), my air-pump oil sprayer ($4), and my mini chopper (it's actually an attachment for my kitchenaid immersion blender). I use those three things all the time in my kitchen.

Cherry & Lemon Creamcheese Tartlets: Serves 6

• 4 sheets phyllo dough
• sugar
• spray-on canola oil
• (185 ml) 3/4 cup 1% milk
• peel of 1/2 lemon
• 8gm (1/2 envelope) gelatin
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) low fat cream cheese, cold
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) sour cream, cold
• 85 ml (1/3 cup) Splenda or other sweetener
• 2.5 ml (1/2 teaspoon) vanilla
• 1 cup cherries, pitted and sliced in half

Layer the 4 sheets of phyllo dough together spraying oil and sprinkling 1 to 2 teaspoons of oil between each layer. Cut stack of sheets into squares a little larger than your tart tins or muffin cups. Push each square of dough into a tin or muffin cup. Bake in a 400F oven for 8 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside to cool. If you have extras, if if you make the shells ahead of time, you can store them, once cool, in an airtight container.

Simmer milk with lemon peel and gelatin on the stove over medium heat for 10 minutes or until reduced to 1/2 cup and the gelatin is dissolved. Strain out the peel. Puree milk and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla, Splenda and sour cream and process again. Refrigerate for 1/2 to 1 +1/2 hours until mixture is cold and somewhat set like a very thick cream or a custard. If I'm in a hurry, I chill mine in the freezer, stirring once every 10 minutes.

Spoon mixture into 6 tart shells and top with cherries.

Each tart is 3 WW points or 165 calories each

Comments

[Tanna]

I like that. What great colors in those cherries!

[Sue Vancil]

I probably shouldn't be reading your site, but Tanna recommended it! I too am a sweet-a-holic ( and she isn't) so this is not fair!!! So the changes you made will assure me that I will be able to fit into my skinny jeans this fall, right?

[CRW]

Beautiful, and I think I could even make it.

[Jen]

That looks so yummy. I'd use sugar though, sweeteners are bad for you.

[lyn]

oops. when I said "....sprinkling 1 to 2 teaspoons of oil between each layer" I meant SUGAR. Not OIL. Will fix that soon!

[jenjen]

This looks amazing! I love that you used phyllo pastry instead of normal puff or shortcrust pastry. It added a nice touch and is defitely not as heavy as the others.
Well done and good luck with our diet, you can do it!

[Helen]

These look wuite nice and I like the idea of using Filo, very nice :)

[Chris]

Is it possible to make this recipe without gelatin?

[Duane]

mmmmm... Sounds wonderful. I might just have to try out this recipe myself.

[Chris]

I tried to double this recipe with pectin instead of gelatin and the filling didn't set at all, it was just tangy goop, but the shells worked out great. We ended up having them with ice cream instead, and some people used the liquidy filling as a sort of sauce.

[Weight Healthy]

terrific!! tested it and i love it!! it just tasted so good that i got speachless!!

[Kristin]

I'm so happy I came across this recipe! I was searching for something light and springy to take to work and it was on short notice too. These were easy and delicious. I did make a few changes: I used low fat sour cream as well as low fat cream cheese; because I was short on time, I didn't have time to thaw phyllo dough, so I used premade sugar cookie dough (the bummer here is that the calories I subtracted from the creams I added back in the cookie dough - but they sure tasted good). Next time I make them I will plan ahead and used phyllo dough! I live in the northern part of the US and we won't see cherries until July, but strawberries are perfect now (end of April). I chopped about 5 medium sized strawberries and stirred them into the cream then topped each tartlet with a strawberry slice. Oh, I also made them in a mini muffin pan for tiny bite size sweets. One last tip - I put all the cream into a zip lock bag, squeezed it all into a corner, cut off the tip and piped the cream into each cookie shell. Thanks so much for posting recipe - I'm looking forward to testing more :)

[Cher]

I like your recipe. I actually found it after already baking the shells and wanted to know how to store them. I also use a time saving trick, I fill mine with instant pudding mix, lemon, chocolate and then garnish with a complimentary fruit. Tonight I made coconut cream with toasted coconut on top. Delish...

[edhardy]

I read your article! Well, I like!
Some online shops you can go to find something different.