the Giant cookie

I call it a fresh fruit tart. Buddy Boy called it a giant cookie. I tried to duplicate a tart I had last summer. It turned out OK, but there are a few things I would do differently. Here is what I did.

The first thing was the crust. I wanted something crisp, flakey, and sweet. I tried a shortbread cookie recipe, just flour, sugar, and butter. yum. It was pretty good, but didn't have the flakiness I was looking for. Next time I'll try something a little more like a pastry crust recipe except still sweet and buttery. It also needs to be a little thinner so it is more like a crust and less like a giant cookie.

The next step was the chocolate. It is good for its chocolaty goodness but it also works as a moisture barrier to keep the crust crisp. I melted chocolate chips and spread them around. It didn't set up the way I thought it would. It was a little soft and was actually a little bit too sweet. Next time dark chocolate or semi-sweet chips.

After the chocolate came the custard. I went with an easy option and used an instant custard. It wasn't very flavorful so I added vanilla. I wish I had some whipped cream to add as well. This layer was OK, but really needed the cream.

After that came the berries. Yummy yummy. It just doesn't get much better than fresh sweet berries.

I'll definitely try this again and see if I can improve on the fruity chocolaty goodness.