Fruit Tarts

Today was a big day for our youth Sunday school class. It was "Promotion Sunday," the week they honored the high school grads and also recognized the younger ones moving up into either middle school or high school. As a result, we had a slightly larger class than usual. I volunteered to bring sweets, thinking something fruity might be good for a hot summer day.
I asked Kyle what he thought would be better....a cherry danish-type dessert or fruit tarts. I wasn't surprised when he chose the tarts.  :)  Fruit pizza is one of our favorite desserts. It has a soft cookie crust, a layer of sweetened cream cheese and then fruit arranged on top. Super yummy! I got the recipe from my Aunt and everyone loves it. But I thought it might be a little messy to take for the class since it requires plates and forks to eat it. And a knife to cut it, and a lifter to serve it, etc., etc...  which is why I decided on tarts!
Well, I was away most of Saturday and didn't feel like spending all evening in the kitchen making and cutting out cookie dough for tarts. So I cheated this time and tried using refrigerated pie crusts. Here's how I made the tarts:

Fruit Tarts

2 boxes refrigerated pie crust
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
small tub of coolwhip
assorted fruit, cut into small chunks or slices. I used strawberries, kiwi, blueberries, blackberries, mandarin oranges and grapes.

1) Unroll the pie dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out circles. Press dough into tart pans and prick well with a fork. Bake according to package directions. Cool completely.




2) Beat cream cheese with powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Fold in about half the tub of coolwhip (I didn't measure) mixing until evenly combined.




3) Spoon a small amount of the cream cheese filling into each tart shell. I used a scoop to quickly get the same amount in each one. Spread slightly. Top each tart with a few different kinds of fruit. Store tarts in the fridge.





That's it! Aren't they pretty? I love all the bright colors of the fruit. I got about 30 tarts, but if I had re-rolled the pie dough scraps I would have gotten a few more.

Before giving them out to the class I wanted to know how they tasted so I tried one. Hmm... guess it was okay, but not as good as fruit pizza. I asked Kyle afterwards what he thought of them and he agreed. He said they were fine, but the pie dough was definitely not as good as the sweet cookie crust I usually make. So these would be better if made with some type of shortbread or sugar cookie tart shell. I'll have to try that next time!