Greek Yogurt Berry Cookie Tart (100% whole grain)

Quick and easy to put together, this healthier 100% whole grain cookie tart has a creamy Greek yogurt, white chocolate and cream cheese filling!

When I arrived back home a week ago, Mr. T had made this awesome tasting but very high in calorie fruit pizza for me. And we decided that I had to recreate it and make it a little bit healthier! The filling in this one is made out of Greek yogurt, cream cheese and white chocolate. It’s super quick and easy to whip up and a breeze to decorate, which is always a score for someone like myself who has no decorating skills. Just toss on some blueberries and strawberries and you’ve got a great little dessert for July 4th.

I made two versions of this Greek yogurt cookie tart. One with a more traditional crust with very little sugar and some coconut oil. I used all whole wheat pastry flour, which I had brought back with me, and it was a huge failure. And then I tried again but with a cookie crust. And with butter and a lot more sugar. I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that this version was SO much better.

The crust isn’t too hard and not too soft. I’d say it’s kind of like a Lofthouse cookie. While I really loved the tart Mr. T made for me, I found myself leaving the crust behind. It just wasn’t soft enough for my liking. With this version, the crust is just as good as the topping! No wasted calories here.

This time I went with half white whole wheat and half whole wheat pastry flour. I don’t recommend using regular whole wheat flour for your cookie tart crust unless you want your cookie base to taste healthy. I was worried that there might still be a slight whole wheat taste, even with my combination of the two flours, so I used some lemon extract and zest which resulted in a crust that’s light and lemony. No whole wheat taste here!

Now we need to talk about white chocolate. While I was living in the US, I wasn’t really into baking like I am now. And I never used white chocolate, just because I didn’t come across any white chocolate recipes I really wanted to try.

Then I moved to Germany and started experimenting with white chocolate. I buy the cheapest brand and even that’s amazing. I always shrugged and admittedly rolled my eyes at the warnings on recipes from other bloggers. “Make sure to use a high quality white chocolate!” And so many people wrote comments on my blog about how they didn’t like white chocolate. I just couldn’t understand it. To me, it was like saying you don’t like puppies or little ducklings or something. It just couldn’t be.

But now I understand.

White chocolate in the US? That stuff was disgusting. It tasted like plastic and chemicals. My mother had a few different brands in her pantry and I didn’t like any of ’em. From what I’ve read and heard, Ghirardelli is the best. So please… do not make this recipe with the cheap stuff! (unless you live in Europe, where the cheap stuff is good :))

And one final thing to note is that your filling will be thicker than what you see here. I might have eaten about… a third of it waiting for my cookie crust to cool. It was just too good. So I apologize for the unrepresentative picture! Just imagine the filling being as thick as the crust.

Prefer a grain-free version? Check out this grain-free blueberry tart from My Whole Food Life!

Greek Yogurt Berry Cookie Tart

♥♥♥♥♥

Rated 5.0 by 3 readers

• Prep Time: 10 min
• Cook Time: 15 min
• Ready in: 1 h
• Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

For the cookie crust:

• 5 tablespoons (70 grams) butter
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons (125 grams) unrefined or white sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1½ teaspoons lemon extract
• ¾ cup (93 grams) white whole wheat flour
• ¾ cup (93 grams) whole wheat pastry flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp baking soda

For the filling:

• ¾ cup (110 grams) white chocolate
• 8 ounces (225 grams) cream cheese
• ½ cup Greek yogurt

To decorate:

• strawberries and blueberries

Directions

For the cookie crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C).
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add the egg, lemon zest and lemon extract and mix until well combined.
4. Add the remaining ingredients (white whole wheat, flour through baking soda) and mix for a minute or until well combined.
5. Press into the bottom and all the way up the sides of a 14"x5" tart pan and bake for 15 minutes.
6. Let the tart cool completely before filling.

For the filling:

7. In a large microwave safe bowl, melt the white chocolate on half power in 20 second increments, stirring after each 20 seconds, until melted.
8. Add the cream cheese and Greek yogurt and with a hand mixer, beat together until well combined. Spread this over the cooled cookie crust.
9. Cover and store in the refrigerator until serving.
10. Before serving, add the strawberries and blueberries or any other fruit you'd like.

Notes

• If you add the berries the night before, I'm afraid that they'll bleed and look rumply in the morning. So please decorate just before serving!
• Only use a high quality white chocolate. If it's not good enough to eat on its own, it's probably not good enough to use in this tart.

Source
http://www.texanerin.com/2013/07/greek-yogurt-berry-cookie-tart.html

Healthy 2-Ingredient Strawberry Applesauce

Strawberries, apples and 45 minutes are all you need for this healthy strawberry applesauce! Naturally vegan, gluten-free, paleo, dairy-free and free of added sugar.

My parents used to take my brother and I to TGI Friday’s pretty often and I ordered the same thing every time – chicken fingers, French fries and strawberry applesauce. Still to this day, if I find chicken fingers on a menu, that’s what I’m getting. Menus with strawberry applesauce are a little less commonplace and not knowing how easy homemade applesauce was to make, I tried different brands of store-bought varieties but they just didn’t measure up (or at least, they didn’t measure up to my memory of what the strawberry applesauce at Friday’s was like!)

I posted another recipe for strawberry applesauce a few years ago but I broke my slow cooker and so I had to find a new way to prepare the applesauce. This recipe is different enough that I figured it warranted another post!

When I posted my first strawberry applesauce recipe, I thought applesauce needed to cook for a long time so I used a slow cooker. That’s totally unnecessary! You seriously just need 30 minutes on the stove top.

It’s so absurdly simple to make. You don’t even need to peel the apples as they break down during cooking and if you use an apple slicer / corer, this is really quick to prepare. Apple slices and hulled strawberries – you just put them in a large pot, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Cool and puree!

I also left out the apple juice, which I had previously used as sweetener. We went strawberry picking recently and came back with some almost candy-like strawberries. This resulted in strawberry applesauce that was so sweet that I can’t even eat all that much at a time. However, if you’re using some less than stellar off-season strawberries, this applesauce likely won’t be all that delicious.

And make sure to use sweet apples and nothing tart! I honestly just use whatever cheap apples I have around. This isn’t an apple pie or a fruit dessert where you need to worry about the texture so just go with whatever you have – except Red Delicious! Your apples should have at least a little taste to them. ;)

Whenever I find myself with too many strawberries, I make up a big batch of this strawberry applesauce, fully intending to eat it all by myself within 5 days, but then I get nervous and freeze whatever I have left after 4 days. If it sits in there for too long, you’ll know by the smell. If it smells funky, you’ll need to throw it out, which is as sad as it sounds. I recommend measuring out a cup per day or whatever you think you’ll eat over the next 4 days, and immediately freeze the rest. Sometimes it keeps well for a full week, sometimes not, so I just err on the side of caution and stick to 4 days.

If you want to make a different sized batch, the proportions are approximately 1/3 strawberries and 2/3 apples by weight. So 1 pound strawberries and 3 pounds apples. Simmer until soft, puree and enjoy. :)

Healthy 2-Ingredient Strawberry Applesauce (naturally vegan, gluten-free, paleo)

• Prep Time: 15 min
• Cook Time: 30 min
• Ready in: 45 min
• Yield: 6-8 cups

Ingredients

• 3½ pounds (1587 grams or about 7 large apples) unpeeled sweet apples
• 18 ounces (510 grams or about 4 cups) sweet and ripe strawberries, rinsed and hulled

Directions

1. Core each apple (do not peel!) and cut into about 6 pieces. Add the apples and strawberries to a large pot. Add about ½" of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Check about halfway through to make sure there's a little liquid on the bottom of the pot (to ensure that they don't stick). The apples should be very soft now. If they aren't, simmer in 5-minute increments until they are.
2. Remove from the heat and let cool for about 20 minutes and then use an immersion blender to puree the applesauce. You can also use a blender or food processor but an immersion blender is quickest, easiest and the least messy.
3. Cool completely and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Freeze any remaining applesauce after that.

Enjoy! Comment below what you think! I love to hear your feedback!

Source
http://www.texanerin.com/2015/07/healthy-2-ingredient-strawberry-applesauce.html