15 Flag Themed Recipes for July 4th

Tyring to decide what to make or bring for this weekends festivities? Here’s A Star-Spangled Tart, one of the 15 American flag themed foods.  To see all 15 click here: http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/featured%20recipes/15-american-flag-themed-foods-your-fourth-of-july-party-needs/ss-AAc37o2?ocid=DELLDHP#image=1

A Star-Spangled Tart

Sweet tart crust, by Smitten Kitchen

1.5 cups AP flour, plus whatever you need to make the dough workable
 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
 1/4 teaspoon salt
 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons; 4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
 1 large egg

Whipped Cream Filling

1 cup heavy whipping cream
 1 Tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 cups fresh raspberries
 1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

You’ll need two rectangular tart pans to make the American flag shape – the dough recipe gives you just enough to fill both.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  In a food processor, combine 1.5 cups flour, 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Pulse grind until evenly mixed.  Then, add the cubes of butter and pulse grind, slowly adding in the egg.  Pulse grind (about ten seconds each) until it won’t mix any more.  At this point, the dough was too sticky for me to work with, so I gradually added flour – about another half cup – until it was more of a pie-dough consistency.

Deb recommends chilling the dough, but I’m horribly impatient these days, and frankly, since it wasn’t required, I didn’t do it.  I rolled the dough out to about 1/4 of an inch in width, and transferred to a buttered tart pan.  I like giving tarts a nice, thick crust – the dainty crusts always fall apart on me.  I’ve given up on them.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the crust is golden to your liking.  Then, remove it from the oven, and let cool.

While that’s resting, beat your whipping cream in a stand mixer for a couple of minutes, until it looks like, well, whipped cream.  Look for stiff peaks.  As it begins to form, gradually add the sugar and vanilla extract.  Set aside in the refrigerator until your tart is ready to serve.

To prepare, use a spatula to fill the tart with whipped cream.  If you want it to be extra decadent, line the tart with a layer of fresh strawberry jam before filling with the whipped cream (that was my original intent, but I got distracted when I made this, and then forgot to do so).  Arrange your berries on top of the whipped  cream to look like a star-spangled banner.

Courtesy of msn.com food and drink and sweetsonian.com – Sarah Marie