This Patriotic American Flag Fruit Tart is a simple summer dessert featuring lemon, fresh strawberries, and fresh blueberries.
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I love a good fruit tart. And with berries in season during the summer, this is a perfect way to add some American patriotism to your cookout or BBQ! The crust and filling is slightly flavored with some lemon zest to bring brightness to the tart.
I feel like having something red, white, and blue or boldy representing America is pretty much required at summer BBQs. Especially for holidays like Labor Day, Memorial Day, and 4th of July. Most of the time this means a dessert. And while this Patriotic American Flag Fruit Tart is a dessert, it is full of fresh berries and fresh lemon flavor. So it tends to taste a little lighter!
It is best to use a rectangle tart pan such as this one, roughly 8 1/2 x 11 or 12 inches. Square, long skinny rectangles, or the traditional circle pan shapes also work, however the crust thickness will vary with how much or little it needs to cover. You can also use a round tart pan, it just loses the flag effect.
This Patriotic American Flag Fruit Tart is a great dessert to make in advance. Just let it chill in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve. You can easily get 12 pieces out of the tart, but 8 if you cut the pieces large! Be prepared, as I always seem to have people arguing over who gets the coveted blueberry star corner with both types of berries! You might want to have some extra berries on the side 🙂
The soft, crumbly tart shell is perfect to me. But if you want a crisper, firmer tart shell, use granulated sugar in the crust instead of powdered. I did this on accident once and found that the firm cookie texture was more loved by some!
Patriotic American Flag Fruit Tart
Ingredients
Crust
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter softened, cut into 1 Tablespoon chunks (12 Tablespoons)
- 1 lemon
Filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup sugar (granulated)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
- 1/3 cup fresh blueberries (more or less)
- 8 large fresh strawberries (more or less)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Zest the lemon. Set aside.
- Using a food processor, combine the powdered sugar, flour, butter, and half of the lemon zest. Blend just until the mixture forms a ball.
- Press the dough into the sides and bottom of the tart pan. Pat to make the crust even.
- Bake the crust until it is just starting to lightly brown, approximately 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
- Make the filling by adding the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and remaining lemon zest in a small bowl. Beat until smooth with a spatula. If the cream cheese is soft, this will be easy to incorporate. If the cream cheese is too stiff, microwave for 15 seconds at a time until soft enough.
- When the crust is cooled, spoon the cream cheese mixture into the tart shell and spread out evenly. It is important that the crust is cool so that the filling does not melt from the heat.
- Decorate the tart by first filling in the blueberries in the top left corner. Either lay them in clean rows or just pile them all in. Use more or less blueberries as desired and needed.
- Remove the tops of the strawberries and slice. Starting at the top, lay the strawberry slices, slightly overlapping, across the space. Leave a gap and repeat rows of sliced strawberries. The number of rows will vary with how wide the strawberries are.
- Chill until ready to serve.
