I love cooking but I’m not a fan of baking.  When I have friends over I usually get so involved in the main savoury food that I end up buying a dessert or sometimes completely forget to get one at all.  Recently I started thinking that I should try and up my dessert making skills but only easy-peasy stuff that still has the wow factor.  And preferably no baking involved.  So I decided to try a no-bake shortbread vanilla fruit tart and I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious it turned out.  And the best part is that it’s so easy to make and you can just use the basic idea and get as creative as you want with toppings.  Also it’s a great dessert to get kids involved in too – it’s that simple.

This fruity dessert is a beautiful cross between vanilla cheesecake and a fruit tart but instead of traditional digestive biscuits as a base or a normal fruit tart base, I decided to try shortbread biscuits and it worked so well.  The shortbread biscuit base has just the right amount of crunch and sweetness without needing to add more sugar to it.

SHORTBREAD VANILLA FRUIT TART
Serves: 8-10

340 gms shortbread biscuits
100 gms butter melted
3 tubs philadelphia cream cheese (180gms x 3)
100 gms icing sugar
300ml double cream
½ vanilla pod seeds
2 tsp vanilla extract
7 kiwi fruits

Start by putting the shortbread biscuits in to a freezer bag or similar and crush them to a fine crumb with a rolling pin.  Add the melted butter to the biscuit crumbs and mix really well.  Spoon this mixture in to your tart tin and flatten with a spoon making as even as possible.

Note: I used a rectangular tart tin (35 x 12 cms) for extra wow factor but Anya also made four individual ones in mini round tart tins (9cms diameter).  So the quantities above are for making more than a rectangular tart but you can reduce slightly to make just one big tart.

Place the biscuit bases in the tins in the fridge so they can harden and set – leave for at least an hour.  While they’re chilling, tip the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla pod seeds and extract in to a bowl and mix well.  Next add the double cream and fold it in till it’s completely mixed in.  Get the bases out of the fridge and spoon the cream cheese mixture on to them.  Smooth it out with a palette knife if you have one otherwise just a regular ol’ knife is good enough – it’s what I used.

Let the tarts chill and set in the fridge for 2-3 hours.  You can do all this even 5-6 hours in advance.  When you are ready to serve, chop your fruit – you can choose any fruit you like or even a few different ones.  Top your tarts, serve and enjoy!

This vanilla fruit tart with cream cheese and shortbread is so delicious.  And it has such a wow factor too but yet it’s so easy to make.  It is quite rich so a little goes a long way.  For the fruit toppings, you can use any fruit you like or even a combination of 3-4 fruits.  I love the slight sharpness that the kiwi fruits gave to this dessert but berries, mangoes, peaches, plums or any fruit you can think of will work just as well.

*I’ve linked up to Honest Mum’s tasty tuedays.