I love taking a simple recipe and elevating it with fresh ingredients and special styling to set it apart. These little Berry Mascarpone Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust are the ultimate easy yet elegant recipe. They combine a simple press-in, shortbread crust, the most effortless 4 ingredients filling and a beautiful array of fresh berries.
This tart recipe is as simple as tarts get, yet they look as if they were purchased at a high end French bakery for beaucoup bucks.
Made with minimal ingredients, these Berry Mascarpone Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust are a thing of beauty and ease.
These tarts begin with the easiest ever, press-in, shortbread crust. It’s basically a shortbread cookie base that gets gently pressed into removable bottom tart pans and baked until crisp. The crust is made from a mixture of Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour
blended with Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour
for shortbread base that’s got a lightly nutty and textural base. To enhance the natural sweetness of the almond flour
, I also blend in brown
sugar for a deeper sweetness in the cookie base. The crust bakes until crisp and crumbly so it can hold the mascarpone filling without becoming instantly soggy.
Just 6 Ingredients needed for the Almond Shortbread Crust
- All Purpose Flour
- Almond Flour
- Brown sugar
- Butter
- Almond extract
- Fine salt
The easy tart filling is made by simply stirring together 4 basic ingredients.
- Fresh Mascarpone
- Greek yogurt
- Honey
- Lemon
Just mix the filling ingredients together, then pour it into the pre-baked crust. Stick it in the fridge and forget about it for a couple of hours. The easy mascarpone tart filling sets once it’s chilled. Then all these Berry Mascarpone Tarts need is to get topped with fresh mixed berries, some herby thyme
and maybe a few chamomile flowers. All it takes to get them show ready and ready to serve!
The best thing about these Berry Mascarpone Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust is how silly simple they are to make. But even better is how satisfyingly delicious they are to eat. The light and airy, creamy mascarpone filling zings with lemon juice and lemon zest that’s mellowed by the natural sweetness of the honey.
The Berry Mascarpone Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust are finished with fresh and bursting mixed berries and herby thyme to bring in seasonal flavors, and show stopping style.
Another great thing about this tart recipe is that it’s highly adaptable, you could top these cuties with any seasonal fruit - figs, caramelized citrus, poached pears, rhubarb compote, the list goes on and on. You can even go Gluten Free by swapping in Bob's Red Mill 1 for 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour for the all purpose flour! If you can dream it, you can do it. With such a simple and versatile base, these Berry Mascarpone Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust can be whatever you want them to be!
This post was made is in partnership with Bob’s Red Mill. Follow Bob’s Red Mill on Instagram and Facebook or check out bobsredmill.com to shop their impressive lineup of whole grains and much more.
Thank you for supporting the brands that I love! <3
📖 Recipe
Berry Mascarpone Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 tarts
Description
These cute little Berry Mascarpone Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust have a light & creamy, lemony mascarpone filling in a crumbly almond shortbread cookie crust with bursting fresh berries & herbs.
Ingredients
ALMOND SHORTBREAD CRUST
- ½ cup unsalted butter (- at room temperature)
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ¾ cup almond flour
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
MASCARPONE FILLING
- 2 cups mascarpone (- at room temperature)
- ¾ cup Greek yogurt (- at room temperature)
- ½ cup honey
- 2 lemons zested & juiced
- 3 cups mixed berries
- 1 small bunch thyme (- optional)
Instructions
ALMOND SHORTBREAD CRUST
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Whisk flour, almond flour and salt together in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar together on medium/high speed for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy, stop the mixer and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl a few times. Add the almond extract and mix until fully incorporated.
- Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients, scraping the bowl a couple of times. Only mix until the ingredients have just come together and the dough is still crumbly.
- Divide the dough evenly between six 4.75" removable bottom tartlet pans. With lightly floured hands, gently press the dough into the pan so it covers the bottom and a create a thin layer up the sides of the each pan. Prick small holes in the bottom of each tart using a fork.
- Bake for about 15-18 minutes until the shortbread dough puffs up a bit and is a warm golden color all over. If it gets too puffy, use the back of a measuring cup to gently press the dough back down in the center. Set aside and allow the shells to cool.
MASCARPONE FILLING
- Blend the mascarpone, Greek yogurt, honey, lemon zest and lemon juice. Once fully blended, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the the shells have cooled.
- Fill with the cooled tart shells with mascarpone filling. Smooth out the tops with the back of a spatula.
- Chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hours so the filling has time to set up.
- Once the filling is set and doesn't jiggle anymore, decorate the tops with mixed berries and adorn with thyme.
- Serve right away or store in the refrigerator until ready to serve, up to 8 hours.
Notes
To keep the shortbread crusts crisp & crumbly, don't add the filling until 2 hours before you are ready to serve & keep in the fridge until serving.
You can even go Gluten Free by swapping in Bob's Red Mill 1 for 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour for the all purpose flour!
If you'd rather bake one large tart instead of 6 mini pans, use a single 9.5” removable bottom tart pan.
- Prep Time: 22 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: tart, Tarts
Keywords: Berry Mascarpone Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust, berry tarts, lemon mascarpone tart, mascarpone tart, tart, tartlets, tarts
