LAZY SUMMER LOCAL STRAWBERRY & VANILLA ICE CREAM TARTS

Fresh local strawberry & vanilla ice cream tarts

In keeping with my "Lazy Summer" theme I started with my last post, I thought I'd show you a sneaky-delicious treat to use up those local strawberries that are so juicy sweet this month. After we visited the driving range in Richmond, we noticed the blueberry & strawberry farm next door to it had a "U Pick" sign. It didn't take much to convince the kids to pick berries. They were half-way across the strawberry field before I could finish "Do you want to pick..."

Frozen tart shells are an economical and time-saving trick for making summer berry desserts. Keep a sleeve on hand in the freezer for the summer.

I pre-bake my tart shells and leave them on the counter to be assembled as needed. Assemble only what you'll eat or you'll have soggy tarts with melted ice cream flooding your plate.

local strawberries are dark, sweet and juicy right now!

Slice the strawberries in half if they're small; in quarters if they're large. I like to use medium-sized strawberries because they fit perfectly on the tarts.

Use a good quality vanilla ice cream. If you're in a rush and need to feed a crowd, you could assemble the tart shells up to filling them with ice cream...then freeze them all on a sheet pan until ready to serve. Then, just slice and top with the berries.

7 yr old is taking pictures for me...so expect some fuzziness and weird focussing occasionally

Fill the pre-baked tart shells with vanilla ice cream. [If you are going to need a lot of these, fill them all and place on a sheet pan and re-freeze to harden the ice cream and store until needed for serving]