The fourth of July is my favorite holiday. The BBQs, fireworks, sparklers, s'mores, red white & blue desserts...all of it, I love. It happens to be my favorite time of year as well and I have such fond memories of fourth of Julys from the past.
Each year my family makes a different red, white & blue dessert. This year we made these little, patriotic berries & cream tartlets. It's my second recipe that I've made from my new Martha Stewart pies & tarts cookbook (here's the first). Being the chocolate lover that I am, I simply had to make a chocolate version of the crust by substituting a 1/4 cup of the flour for a 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. The cocoa tastes so good with the berries, and it's not too overpowering-ly sweet. The vanilla cream filling is just the same, a perfect hint of vanilla with a creaminess that marries the crust and berries in perfect harmony.
You can use any berries that you desire and if you're like me, you can go crazy designing different berry combinations and patterns for each tartlet!
I wrote all about my love for the fourth of July in the July/August issue of FOLK Magazine (which you can pick up here) and included another favorite red, white & blue recipe of mine. I have a couple of big blog posts coming from the past weekend and a new project I'm working on. But first, I have to send out my computer to be worked on, so while that's happening I'm off to the beach for an extra long weekend where I will be catching up on my reading and fitting in one shoot of a beach house! I hope you all have a wonderful fourth of July and get to see some fireworks!
