Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Memorial Day Dessert - WW Lemon Berry Tart

My parents came over for dinner on Sunday, largely in part to check out our sweet new patio furniture.  Too bad it rained about 2 minutes before we were ready to sit down to eat.  My mom is currently doing Weight Watchers (epic fail on that front for me), so I made the whole meal using WW recipes (awwww) so it would be easier to keep track of points.  The hardest part about this was picking out a dessert.  I love rich, decadent desserts, but I knew that wasn't going to fly for this dinner.


This recipe is super easy to make - it has 4 ingredients, and takes less than 15 minutes to make (and is taken, appropriately enough, from a magazine full of 5 (or less)-ingredient, 15-minute (or less) dishes).  The filling is crazy delicious - light, creamy, and cool - and the graham cracker crust is a great contrast.  No need for a long intro here; let's get to it.

Ingredients
4 pre-made miniature graham cracker crusts (such as those by Keebler)
3 Tbsps lemon curd
1 1/2 cups of low-calorie Cool Whip (you can go all out with the regular Cool Whip if you're not counting points; fat free Cool Whip is not required)
1 1/2 cups of fresh berries (I used strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries)

Directions
1.  Microwave 3 Tbsp of lemon curd in a microwave-proof bowl for 15 seconds to soften it.  After softening it, whisk the lemon curd.

2.  Whisk 1/2 cup of the Cool Whip into the lemon curd, until completely blended.  

3.  Whisk in the remaining 1 cup of Cool Whip.

4.  Divide the mixture into the pre-made crusts, putting 1/4 cup of filling in each crust.  (See Sidebar below.) 

5.  You can either top the tarts with the fresh fruit, or refrigerate the untopped tarts until you're ready to serve.  I did the latter, and it helps the filling set up a bit more firmly.

Sidebar: Is anyone else confounded by the math in this recipe?  If I add 1.5 cups of Cool Whip, then how do I only get 1 cup of filling?  And trust me, I thought I would end up with 1.5 cups of filling, and that this was a typo, but you really only end up with 1 cup of filling.  The only thing I can think is that the residual heat of the lemon curd coupled with the whisking of the Cool Whip reduces the final volume of the filling.

For those of you interested, if you make this recipe with the low-calorie Cool Whip, each tart is worth 4 points.  Even if you're not interested in that info, give this recipe a try - it's very satisfying!


5 comments:

Unknown May 26, 2009 at 7:20 PM  

Yummy AND cute ... I'm going to try it! Thanks for the post!

Julia May 26, 2009 at 7:33 PM  

Yum! They look really nice too! I'm always on the lookout for "healthy" desserts...I pretty much stick with angel food cake with berries. Thanks for posting!!

AppGal May 27, 2009 at 12:21 PM  

this looks awesome. i wonder if you could do the same thing with key lime flavor? My hubby loves key lime during the summer...perhaps i'll try it out :)

fiona1225 May 30, 2009 at 3:00 PM  

Thanks for the great looking recipe!
One question: where do you get the lemon curd? If in the grocery store, what section?
Thanks!

JTS May 30, 2009 at 10:17 PM  

@Stylestance - thanks! Have you tried it yet? How did it turn out?

@Julia - It is really yummy for being on the lighter side - I think my boyfriend had 3 of them, haha.

@AppGal - I bet you definitely can - just substitute any curd for the lemon one (and curd is really easy to make, if you can't find one in the flavor you want). Let me know if you try it with the key lime and how it is!

@Kathryn - I'm glad you like it! You can get lemon curd in the grocery store - in my store, it is with the jams and jellies. You can also make your own (have never done it, but I think it's pretty straightforward) if you don't want to buy a whole jar!