A Berry Good Summer Dessert for 2

The strawberries this summer so far have been nothing short of amazing.

One of the most fantastic things happened to me the other day while browsing the isles of Wally World...

Strawberries were on sale for 75 cents!

Say What?! 75 cents!

With a deal like that it's hard to pass up and obviously I bought a few containers with high ambitions of whipping up some delicious treats.

Needless to say, this is just the first of a few strawberry desserts you'll be seeing from this lady in the coming weeks.

It's difficult sometimes making desserts for just me and MM, mostly because making a big dessert means we have to eat the whole thing...which is quite delicious and easy, but not when you're making sure you'll still fit into your perfectly fitting wedding dress in just a few months. Not to mention, its bathing suit season.

So when I can make individual portions or cut servings in half I jump at the opportunity.

I used my favorite tart crust, cut the recipe in half and then used the small ball of dough to line the bottom of two small oven proof glass bowls (I don't have mini tart pans..yet).

I'm going to post the whole recipe in case you want to make one large tart, but I'll include my halved version as well for those of you who may not be baking for as many.

Tart Crust
Oven: 400 Bake time: 15 minutes
Full recipe fills a 9-inch tart pan

4 oz cream cheese (2 oz)
1/2 cup butter, softened (1/4 cup)
1 TBS sugar (1/2 TBS)
1/4 tsp salt (1/8 tsp)
1 1/4 cup AP flour (1/2 cup plus 2 TBS)

Homemade Whipped Cream
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 TBS powdered sugar

Sliced strawberries
Fresh blackberries

In a small bowl, beat whipping cream with an electric mixer until it begins to thicken.
Slowly add powdered sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
Place prepared whipping cream in fridge to chill.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 and spray two 3-inch tart pans or small oven safe bowls with cooking spray.
Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar and salt until creamy.
Add flour and beat at low speed until soft dough forms.
Shape into disc and chill for about 20-30 minutes.
Once dough is chilled, cut dough into two pieces.

Flatten dough into each of your small pans/bowls.

Bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Allow crusts to cool slightly before adding whipped cream.
Place heaping dollop of whipped cream on top of cooled crust and smooth out with spatula. (Add as much whipped cream as you need to cover the entire crust)

Arrange fresh fruit on top of smoothed whipped cream.

Finish off with a small dollop of whipped cream and voila! A fresh summer dessert for two!

Happy Baking!

Blackberry & Peach Dutch Oven Cowboy Cobbler

Nothing says summer like fresh fruit.

Blackberries in particular seem to be popping up everywhere- Mountain Man recently discovered a place to pick fresh ones near his work and a few days later one of the girls at work found a blackberry bush on her property as well.

So when she decided to have a backyard bbq, I knew her blackberries just had to be showcased.

My mind immediately went to cobbler and when our boss suggested actually making the cobbler on site in a dutch oven I was sold.. Having never baked in a dutch oven before, I was pretty excited to see how it would turn out.

The process couldn't have been easier.

Make sure you have a good hot fire going and a nice dutch oven to start..

Then all you need are a few key ingredients: a box of yellow cake, a stick of butter, 2 cans of peaches, a bunch of blackberries, and cinnamon and sugar and aluminum foil....

Start by lining your dutch oven with the aluminum foil- this is going to make your clean up much easier.

Next, pour in 2 cans of peaches and fresh blackberries...

Sprinkle your box of cake mix over the fruit and using a large spoon, mix until your cake mix starts to get absorbed by the juice from your peaches.

Cut your stick of butter into thin slices and distribute over your cake/fruit mixture.

The last step in the cobbler preparation is to sprinkle your cinnamon-sugar mixture over top just before covering (the amount of sprinkling is completely up to you). Once you've got your share of sprinkling done, lightly fold over the sides of your aluminum foil.

Now its time for baking!

Cover your cobbler with the dutch oven lid and place in the fire, right over the coals. 

Then using fire proof tongs, add a few of the hot coals on top of the lid.

After about 30 minutes it's time to go and check on your cobbler.

It's helpful if you have a cowboy that will do all the dirty work for you.

If it has a nice golden brown top then it's done and ready for eating!

Holy Delicious.

We actually made two cobblers that afternoon and this happens to be the Blueberry & Peach Cobbler.. the Blackberry & Peach Cobbler was all gone before I could grab a picture!

Blackberry & Peach Dutch Oven Cobbler

You'll need: A dutch oven, aluminum foil and a hot fire

2 cans of peaches

1 bunch of fresh blackberries (about 2 cups)

1 box of yellow cake mix 

1 stick of butter

cinnamon and sugar

Line your dutch oven with aluminum foil.

Pour peaches and blackberries in first.

Sprinkle cake mix over top and using a big spoon, mix until cake mix is soaked up by the peach juice.

Cut butter into small slices and place on top of cobbler mixture.

Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar (to your liking) on top as a finishing touch.

Gently pull excess aluminum foil over cobbler and put the lid on the dutch oven.

Place dutch oven directly in the fire and using fire proof tongs to place a few coals on top of lid.

Allow to sit for about 30 minutes- check to see if top has browned.

Remove from fire and enjoy!

Happy Baking!

ps. for those of you that commented on my 'Peanut Butter Chocolate & Potato Chip Cookies,' Thank you! Blogger has been all sorts of a mess and somehow in the mix of it all your comments got deleted :(