Black Raspberry Tart

                                                                            

Fresh Black Raspberry Tart is a scrumptious dessert. This tart has a sugar cookie crust, seedless black raspberry filling & topped with vanilla butter crumb topping! Add a dollop of ice cream or whipped cream if you wish & as you can see my choice was vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

SUGAR COOKIE CRUST:

1 & 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Stick which is 8 TBS of softened Butter

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 Egg

2 Tsp. Vanilla

Stir the flour, baking powder & salt together & set aside. Beat butter until soft, add sugar & beat again. Add the egg & vanilla & beat again. Now add your flour mixture about 1/4 cup at a time beating well. Once everything in incorporated & beaten well, chill in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees & spray your 9 inch tart pan with baking spray. Once dough has chilled, remove from freezer & spread it into your prepared pan. If you do not have a tart pan a 9 inch pie pan works nicely too. Bake 10 to 15 minutes until crust is nicely browned. Remove from oven & let cool. Now let's make that yummy filling!

BLACK RASPBERRY FILLING:

1 Quart of Fresh picked black raspberries, you may use frozen!

1 & 1/2 Cups water

1 Cup Sugar

4 Heaping TBS Cornstarch

2 TSP Lemon Juice

Dash of Salt

1 Tsp. Vanilla

Place your washed berries into a deep sauce pan add the water & bring to a boil. Simmer about 15 minutes stirring often. Now  run the cooked berries through a fine sieve to remove the seeds. You do not have to do this but I wanted a no seed tart. Save the contents you ran through the sieve including the juice. Put it back into the pot discard the seeds. Now stir the sugar & cornstarch together. Bring the berry mixture to a boil & whisk in the sugar mixture stirring the entire time. Cook until thick & bubbly. Once nice & thick remove from heat & add the lemon juice, vanilla & dash of salt. Whisk until nicely blended. Pour mixture evenly over the cooled cookie crust. Now on to the crumbs!

CRUMB TOPPING:

1 Cup Flour

3/4 Cup Sugar

3 TBS Butter (cold)

2 Dashes of Salt

a couple drops of Vanilla

Stir flour, sugar, & salt together. Cut butter into small pieces & cut into your mixture until you get a nice crumb texture. Add a few drops of vanilla & lightly stir with a fork. Cover a baking sheet with parchment. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Spread crumb mixture over the parchment & bake 10 minutes, stir crumbs & bake another 3 minutes or so until you have lightly browned crumbs. You will spread these over the Black Raspberry Filling. Let crumbs cool about 10 minutes. If you filling has set & has  a gloss on top drag a fork over the surface to make a rougher surface so the crumbs will stick. Now spread those delicious crumbs over the top. Chill at least 4 hours or overnight! This is delicious & just might be my new favorite dessert! 

16 Bean Ham & Bean Soup

                                                                            

16 Bean Ham & Bean Soup !

1 16 Ounce Heath & Harvest 16 Bean Soup Mix

2 Pounds Of Ham

1Large Onion peeled & chopped

4 Large Potatoes peeled & Chopped

3 Ribs Celery Chopped

4 Large Carrots Peeled & Chopped

Water to cover

2 Bay Leaves

1 TBS Chopped Parsley

4 TBS Cornstarch 

1&1/2 Cups cold water

Simmer the chunk of ham in water enough to cover the ham. Simmer 1 hour. Remove from pot to cool. Now dump in the bean soup mix DO NOT ADD THE PACKET of seasoning YET! Simmer beans about 1 hour. Now add the rest of the ingredients including the ham you will want to dice into nice sized chunks, but do not add the the cornstarch & water at this point, & let cook on simmer about 2 hours or dump everything into a crock pot & cook on low another 5 hours! Once cooked stir the cornstarch into the cold water until smooth & then stir enough into the soup until it is as thick as you like it! I like mine thick! Remove the 2 Bay Leaves before serving! This is the best bean soup I have eaten yet!