Strawberry Tart with Vanilla Cream

Strawberries are the perfect accompaniment to a summer dessert, and this recipe makes for an easy treat so you can spend your evening relaxing on the patio with a cool drink rather than fussing over a dessert inside. The hardest part of the whole recipe is to keep yourself from eating the vanilla cream with a spoon. So as long as you have a little self-control you're all good.

Vanilla Cream

• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

Vanilla Cream Directions:

1. Blend the vanilla, sugar, and cream cheese until smooth. Add more vanilla extract if it is too thick (should not form peaks when stirred). Set aside until you're ready to serve the tart.

StrawberryTart Ingredients:

• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed according to directions on the package
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, rinsed and sliced
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Strawberry Tart Directions:

1. Preheat the oven 400 F. 
2. Beat the egg, cream cheese, brown sugar, and vanilla with a whisk until smooth and almost pillowy, about 3 minutes.
3. Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into a large rectangle about 1/2" thick (roughly 10x16"). Prick the dough with a fork every three inches or so.
4. Blind bake for 4 minutes, then remove the puff pastry from the oven. Spoon and spread the cream cheese mixture over the pastry, leaving about 1 inch border un-touched (like a pizza). Bake for an additional 8-10 minutes, until the pastry is golden around the edges.
5. Top with the sliced strawberry wedges and let it cool to room temp before drizzling on the vanilla cream. Use a pizza cutter to slice up the tart into squares before serving, as is or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been a while since I last shared a recipe, and I hope that this delightful cookie recipe will make up for the wait. I am always intrigued when I find a recipe with a twist on a classic recipe, and when I came across this recipe for Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies from Plain Chicken I knew I had to try it. I love coconut flavors in both savory and sweet foods, and fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) I had all the ingredients on hand. To those who do not use coconut oil, you're missing out. You can cook with it like other oils, make your own chocolates like these, heck you can even use it as a hair mask. Basically, it's pretty darn handy.

The coconut flavor in these cookies is not overwhelming, but more a subtle hint in these pillowy-chocolate-chippy morsels.

I know you're not supposed to trust people when they say Trust me. But trust me on this one, these will change the way you look at those jars of coconut oil at the grocery store. Seriously.

I halved the recipe and made jumbo-sized cookies (8 total, so I'll give y'all the regular amounts in case you have a party or a bake sale to attend), but other than that I stayed true to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 
2. In a large bowl, mix the coconut oil and sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, mix until combined. 
3. Fold in the chocolate chips, then divide the batter into golf ball-sized pieces of dough. This should yield roughly 3 dozen cookies, but if you want to make jumbo cookies, divide the batter into larger pieces so you make 16 large cookies
4. Bake in the center of the oven for 10-12 minutes. For jumbo cookies, the baking time increases to closer to 15-17 minutes.

Cool completely before storing in an air-tight container. Or if you're like me, wait until the chocolate is not molten so you can scarf one down and then regret not savoring the chewy, soft, coconutty flavors, rationalize that you really must experience that taste again and eat another one much slower. Then feel really full and delay making dinner for another 3 hours.