Red, White, and Blue Queso Fresco Sweet Tart
Add a delicious Red White and Blue Cacique® Queso Fresco Tart to your table this Fourth of July and celebrate with family and friends.
I’ve always loved this holiday because it was summertime and that meant being outside running around in the water and at night lighting fireworks. My entire extended family would always go to my parents’ home to celebrate Fourth of July. Their cities didn’t allow them to have fireworks. Ours did. We’d have more than 50 people in our front yard lined up with lawn chairs, blankets and kids running amuck up and down the street lighting their fireworks. Those were the best of times.
It was also the one time of year when my mom would get up on a ladder in the garage and bring down her vintage hand crank ice cream maker. Me and all of my primas and primos would line up to take a turn cranking that wooden barrel watching intently as the eggs, cream and ice transformed into a soft, velvety vanilla ice cream.
Now as I am older, it’s the dessert table at our family gathering that still holds my attention. With a large family though, we need desserts that everyone can enjoy.
The Red White and Blue Cacique® Queso Fresco Tart is easy to make and will leave you’re your friends and family asking for more. The cheese has just a kiss of saltiness that adds a wonderful flavor to the sweetness of sugar and the fresh fruit. You can make this as a tart, or turn the ingredients into an empanada or even bake with phyllo dough.
Note: Click the ‘Products‘ tab above to learn more about the Cacique® ingredients used in this recipe. You can find these ingredients near you by clicking the ‘Find Stores‘ tab, selecting the products you are looking for, and entering your zip code.
WHAT YOU NEED
- 1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
- 1 package of Cacique® Ranchero® Queso Fresco
- 2 tablespoons of turbinado sugar (you can use white sugar as well, I just like the darker look and taste of the turbinado sugar better)
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts toasted (optional)
- 1 pre-made frozen pie pastry disk, thawed
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon water
HOW TO MAKE IT
- In a medium bowl, crumble the Cacique® Queso Fresco. Add the turbinado sugar and mix well.
- Prepare large cookie sheet with a non-stick cooking spray. Roll out the pie crust disk on the cookie sheet.
- Place the queso fresco on the disk and spread evenly, leaving a one-inch border on the edges. Decorate the cheese mixture with the fresh strawberries and blueberries (the more patriotic looking the better!). Fold up the edges of the pastry dough, creating a border around the entire disk. This is important as the juice from the fresh fruit will begin to sweat as the pastry cooks. It’s okay to have it spill over some of the edges. It makes for a more rustic looking dessert.
- In a small bowl, add water to egg wash and mix together. Brush the edges of the pastry with the egg wash and sprinkle with more turbinado sugar and pine nuts. Bake for 25 minutes until edges are golden brown. Allow to cool and settle about 10 minutes and serve.
