A Taste of Spring

Ah, spring, where are you? Seriously, what's up with the whole teasing-me-with-75-degree-weather-and-then-disappearing-again thing? Really. That's just heartless. Last week was beautiful--blue skies, trees starting to bud, SUNSHINE...aaaand now the cold-and-rainy is back. SIGH.

Oh, well. Drama aside, I know it'll come soon enough. And, hey, if I can't have spring yet, at least I can have spring desserts.

Now, in my mind, spring dessert=fruit. So when we had some friends over last night, I was determined to make something involving fruit. Also, I have a new tart pan that I bought at TJ Maxx a while back and haven't had a chance to use yet. On top of that, I've been eying this recipe in one of my cookbooks for a while now; the picture is amazing (see the pic). So, easy decision. White chocolate tart it was.

Step one: shortbread crust. Just some butter, confectioners' sugar, and eggs. Mix it, bake it. Easy as...um...shortbread?

Step two: Let the sucker cool while I cut up fruit.

Step three (and can I say that this picture does NOT do this step justice?): melt white chocolate and mix it up with whipping cream and cream cheese. (Beauty. Sheer beauty.) Then spread it over the shortbread.

Step four: the fruit! (And this took me WAY longer than it should have. Goofy perfectionism.)

Some oranges...

Step five: Once it's all assembled, make a glaze and brush it all over the fruit to make it shiny and keep it from drying out and getting funky.

Step six: Brew some coffee, cut a slice, and feel a little more content with waiting for spring to show up.