Happy Friday everyone. Below is the first guest post from Shannon at Bakergirl Creations. Get ready to have your blueberry and sweet tooth cravings satisfied!

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I absolutely adore berries.  When we were little kids we had raspberry, blackberry and salmon berry bushes super close to our house and often went out down the lane with our old ice-cream buckets and foraged for that night’s desserts.

Blueberries bring blue lips, fruit tarts, delicious pies, scrumptious scones and anything else I can throw them into!  They are such a healthy choice food: anti-oxidants, nutrients, vitamins and anti-aging properties, you really can’t go wrong can you?  Living in the Pacific Northwest blueberries are in full abundance right now.  In fact, we actually have a blueberry surplus this year.  Many growers still have frozen stock from last year and as a result prices are super low right now.  Don’t get me wrong, in today’s economy I wouldn’t wish anyone ill with their business ventures, but at the same time, yay for low prices!

And so, cheap blueberries and a tub of Mascarpone cheese that needed to be used in the fridge and this tasty-tasty tart was created.  To be honest, it was a crap shoot.  I had this idea to combine the flavours of the cheese and blueberries with a shortbread crust that I had been meaning to try from the Joy of Baking website.  It worked!  Almost like a blueberry, maple infused cheesecake…so yummy.  And so simple (though a little messy!).  If you are up for a blueberry delight, I highly recommend this one.

photo: © Bakergirl Creations

Ingredients:
Crust
1 recipe of Shortbread Tart crust from the Joy of Baking
(I found this dough to be insanely soft! Two solutions: chill it for about 10 minutes after you make it, and before you put into your tart pan, or really flour your hands to help keep the dough in place.  Also, it is important to note that this makes more than enough dough for a 9 or 10 inch tart, it will also result in 3-4 muffin sized tarts)

Cheese Filling
1 X 478 g tub of Mascarpone Cheese
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/8 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp Vanilla
juice of 2 limes
1/2 cup whipping cream

Berries + Glaze
2 pints fresh blueberries
2 pomegranate tea bags
1 cup water
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch

Directions:
1.    Preheat oven to 325 F.
2.    Prepare tart according to directions.  Chill.
3.    Blind bake the tart (original recipe didn’t call for this, but I found it helped)
4.    Cool tart crust completely.
5.    Combine all of the cheese filling ingredients, except the whipping cream, in a large bowl.  Whip together with a hand held mixer for a minute until well combined.
6.    Add whipping cream and combine.  It will take another minute of whipping to thicken the cream in the mixture.
7.    Pour mixture into cooled tart shell and with spatula smooth.
8.    Spread blueberries on top.  You can stop here, or you can make the glaze to add the “finished” feel. Refrigerate.
9.    To prepare the glaze, in a saucepan, boil water.  Remove from heat and add teabags, allow to steep for a few minutes.
10.    Remove tea bags and return saucepan to heat.  Add sugar and stir together until sugar is dissolved. If you have a few spare berries, you can crush them in with a potato mixture and it would add even more colour to the mix.
11.    Combine cornstarch with 2 Tbsp water, whisk together to make a slurry.
12.    Whisk slurry into the tea and sugar mixture, allow to thicken.
13.    Remove from heat, allow to cool a little.  Using a pastry brush, paint the top of your tart until fully covered.

Serves 8.

photo: © Bakergirl Creations