Mini Berry Tarts

Preheat oven to 350 F. Using a greased mini muffin pan, fill each section with a 1 inch ball of sugar cookie dough. One tube makes 50 shells so you may not want to use it all. I use a leveled off small scoop from Pampered Chef, which is 1 tablespoon size.

Bake the dough for about 10-12 minute. When they come out of the oven, set pan on a rack and gently press down the center of the tart shell to make space for the cream cheese filling. I use the blunt end of my pizza slicer. There is an actual tool designed for this called a mini tart shaper, but even the end of a wooden spoon would do the job.

Allow the tarts to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then gently twist to loosen the edges and remove them from the pan to a cooling rack. The tart shells are much easier to remove from the muffin tin if they do not go over the edge of the pan when they bake. If yours are difficult to remove, try filling them with less dough, greasing more thoroughly, or allowing them to cool longer.

For the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and heavy cream with an electric mixer until fluffy and smooth. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a little at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Fill a piping bag or Ziplock bag with the filling mixture and pipe into each tart. Top with small pieces of strawberry, or a whole raspberry. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

These can be made ahead of time, but the shell will soften up a bit after 24 hours in the refrigerator, so same day is best.