Lazy Lemon Cream Fruit Tart

I'm not a huge fan of processed foods and I try to buy 80% of my groceries organic. But sometimes I get a little lazy. Sometimes I just want to throw something tasty together that looks beautiful and tastes delish, even if it has a smattering of processed-not-good-for-you-goodness.

This little tart is so yum. I would say the cream tastes like a mix between lemon curd and cheesecake. Very zingy and bright. I came up with it for the Real Women of Philadelphia contest, only I made it with orange juice and orange zest. So you could easily swap the fruits out. If you do use the orange, don't add the 1/3 c. water, since the orange is much more juicy than the lemon. You can watch that video here. Anyways, I wanted to mix it up the other day, as I was going to a play date with the kiddos and wanted to bring something yummy. I had tons of fresh fruit in the frig and I needed to do something with it. The best thing about this tart is that you can use whatever fruit you have!

Lazy Lemon Cream Fruit Tart

prep: 30 minutes baking: 15 min. serves: 9 oven: 400 degrees

1 pkg. 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding
1/3 c. water
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 7oz. jar of marshmallow fluff
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg
Various fruits, I used bing cherries, blueberries, strawberries and mango
3 tbls. apricot jam

Preheat oven 400 degrees. With a blender or in your mixer with the wire whisk attachment, blend the first 6 ingredients together, until very smooth. Transfer to a ziploc bag, all to one corner and chill in frig while puff pastry is baking.

Lay out your defrosted puff pastry. No need to roll it out or anything. Just score, with a very sharp knife, a 1/2" border all the way around, creating a nice edged when it bakes. Brush it all with beaten egg with a tsp. of water. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

After it is cooled, pipe in your chilled cream. Simply cut off the corner of your ziploc bag and voila! you have a pastry bag. You will have some cream left over, but that's the reason you are a cook, for those tidbits that no one else gets. Okay, if your a nice mom, I guess you let the kids lick the beaters...sometimes.

After it's piped in and smoothed out, place your fruit on top, however you like. I tend to always go for rows of fruit. I feel tempted to just scatter it about, but I always come back to the rows. What's that about?

Take the apricot jam and nuke it in the microwave with a tsp. of water, until is melts and is easy to brush on your fruit. Be generous with the glaze. It makes it shiny and keeps the fruit looking fresh.
You can put it in the frig until you are ready to serve or just serve right away!