I have been in the mood to bake and haven't done it much lately (cuz I eat what I bake) so I decided to try a new recipe. I have an external hard drive where I saved some files from an old computer, but I don't often look at those files (even though I'd be sad if they got erased). So I found a recipe there that I copied years ago from the wonderful Taste of Home recipe bulletin board and tried it. It was posted by Plumcrazy_Alta in 2003, but I can't find the post anymore. As soon as I started making the crust, I realized that these are almost exactly like the Mini Chocolate Cherry Tarts I have been making for years except these have chocolate chips swirled in and no cherry on top. So I knew we'd like them.Notice the oh-so-pretty dish from my sis Heather that the tarts are in? I love it! It was funny that when I looked back for the cherry tart recipe post, the picture shows the cherry tarts sitting in an identical dish except it's white. I bought the dish for a friend's birthday present and filled it with the tarts, then took pictures before I gave them to her.
(Thank you Alex for taking the picture of me forming the crust.)
Chocolate Marble Tarts1/4 c. cocoa
1/3 c. sugar
3/4 c. flour
1/8 t. salt
1/3 c. butter
3 T. cold water
3 oz. cream cheese
3 T. sugar
1/2 c. sour cream
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla
1/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 325ยบ. Combine flour, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa and salt. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing gently until all the mixture is moistened. Form this mixture into a ball. Shape dough into twenty-four 1-inch balls and press onto the bottom and up the sides of ungreased mini muffin cups.
In a small bowl beat cream cheese and 3 tablespoons sugar until fluffy. Separate the egg and beat in the egg yolk, sour cream and vanilla. Divide the cream cheese mixture evenly among the muffin cups. Top each with about 1/2 tsp of the chocolate chips. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven. With a knife or chopstick, slightly swirl chocolate into mixture just to marble. Return to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes more. Cool slightly in pan. Remove and cool on a rack.
Since I love the cherry pie filling on the other tarts, I decided to top a couple of these with raspberry pie filling. It was yummy, but I think I'd like fresh berries even better! Pretty pop of color either way.
I went once with Elisa when she was in third grade (I think it was). It was a school field trip to their pumpkin patch and apple orchard. I cannot believe it has taken me so long to go back! I decided I'd take the kids after school one day last week. Sabrina's friend invited her to play and Sabrina said she'd rather play than go with us since she doesn't like ice cream anyway.
As well as the food, they also have some gifts and home decor.
And they sell fudge, donuts and cookies, soda, fruit shakes and cider slush. You can even have the cider slush a la mode.
After looking around, we decided to get a chocolate covered cherries and almond mix for a friend and ice cream for us. They have it available in quart-sized containers (I think that's the size), soft serve or scooped. We decided to get scooped ice cream.
Alex ordered a medium peanut butter in a cup. It has little peanut butter cups in it (like the ones they sell at Trader Joe's that I've only seen online).
I got the blue mint because I like to try unusual (but nothing too exotic) new things. It is mint flavored ice cream with chunks of Oreos and white chocolate. It was pretty good from what I could taste. Unfortunately I had a cold and couldn't taste the mint much, but Alex and Elisa tasted it and said they could taste it...and they liked it. I couldn't believe this was the small. It's pretty big to me!
