BLUEBERRY CREAM CHEESE TARTS with Graham Cracker Crust

Cream Cheese Pastry Cream
1 cup milk
5 tablespoons sugar
4 large egg yolks
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 ozs of cream cheese, cut into cubes and at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks

Combine 3/4 cup of the milk and 3 tablespoons in a heavy bottomed saucepan and simmer over medium heat. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and cornstarch. Whisk remaining 1/4 cup milk into the egg mixture. Remove the hot milk and whisk a bit slowly into the mixture to just warm the egg mixture. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the hot milk in the saucepan, whisking constantly when you pour.

Place the saucepan on a stove and bring it to the boil while whisking constantly. You will see lots of bubbles when you whisk it but when it starts to thicken, the bubbles will dissapear. It takes about 3 minutes for it to thicken. Add the cream cheese cubes and vanilla extract and whisk it into the custard. Whisk untill all the lumps dissapear. To make sure everything is melted, sieve the mixture. Cover the surface of the pastry cream with cling wrap and refrigerate. Leave it to chill and fold in the whipped heavy cream.

Blueberry Topping
2 1/2 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar

To make the syrup, mix 1 cup of blueberries and sugar in a saucepan over heat. Cook until the berries have popped and broken down, above 5 minutes. Sieve the mixture to get the syrup while discarding the solids. Toss the remaining blueberries with the syrup and add it as a topping to the pastry cream in the tart shell.

added by Marwa El Odessi