Creamy, no-bake lemon cheesecake filling layered over a graham cracker crust and topped with fresh blueberries. These delectable (and easy!) lemon blueberry tarts are made single-serving-sized in mason jar lids!
Our neighbors spend an incredible amount of time carefully tending to their lawns. They spend hours manicuring them, mowing them (and sweeping them?! Is that normal?) and paying green and white vans to show up and treat every blade with chemical cocktails, leaving behind bright yellow flags on the perimeters of their property warning children and dogs to KEEP OFF.
The results are beautiful, clean, lushly carpeted lawns in a single, tidy shade of green.
Meanwhile, our yard, while well-enough maintained with weekly trimmings and weed-whackings (thanks entirely to Zach), is much less a lush carpet and much more an ill-patterned patchwork quilt. Our lawn is a hodgepodge held together with grass, but primarily punctuated with smattering seams of clover and clover flowers, pronounced patches of dandelions, both with sunny yellow faces and puffy white beards, and a motif of buttercups and pretty little purple flowers.
And while Zach and I may joke about what an embarrassment our yard is amidst these perfectly kept lawns, I honestly love our imperfectly perfect, chemical-free lawn with all of its colors and clovers (and especially the dandelions — think of the bees!). It’s pretty and simple and (possibly my favorite) low maintenance.
Coincidentally, that’s also how I like my desserts.
Likewise, these lemon blueberry tarts are pretty, simple, easy and sweet. You don’t need a fancy tart pan (though I think it may just be me who thinks that tart pans are something extravagant and fancy), you just need a couple of clean mason jar lids and a few basic ingredients.
The graham cracker crust is a mere 3 ingredients, pressed into the lids and baked briefly. The filling is so, so easy — I had originally been working on an intricate, multi-step lemon pastry cream, but (about 5 batches later) by the time I had perfected it, I decided I would much rather have something lighter, and definitely easier. The lemon filling is made with cream cheese and has an airy, fresh-lemon cheesecake flavor. If you don’t feel like making your own lemon curd you can buy a jar from just about any store.
Topped with blueberries, the combination of crunchy, creamy, and sweet is refreshing, spring-y, perfection.
If you’d like, you can also brush the berries with melted apple jelly (or toss them in the melted jelly before piling them on top of your tarts), it gives them a beautiful sheer shellac that makes them look almost unreal.
Enjoy!
Lemon Blueberry Tarts (in Mason Jar Lids)
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup butter melted
Filling
- 16 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup lemon curd homemade or store-bought
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 16 oz blueberries washed and dried, for topping
- 1 Tbsp apple jelly optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a medium-sized bowl, use a fork to combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar.
- Add melted butter and stir until well combined.
- Take your mason jar lids and turn the flat piece of the mason jar upside down so that the crust will be in touch with metal, (and the rubber surface will be facing outwards, that way your food is not in contact with the rubber).
- Use a spoon to press graham cracker crumbs into lids, covering the bottom and sides.
- Transfer to a cookie sheet, and then bake on 350F for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before filling.
Filling
- In KitchenAid or with hand-mixer, beat the cream cheese until creamy.
- With mixer on low-speed, gradually add powdered sugar until it is completely combined.
- Stir in vanilla extract and lemon curd. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- With mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add heavy cream until it has all been added.
- Increase speed to high and beat 1-2 minutes, until mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl again, and beat briefly (about 10 seconds).
- Pipe (I scrape the filling into a ziploc bag, snip off one of the corners, and squeeze the filling into each tart) or pour the filling into each tart, filling just below the rim of the lid.
- Top with blueberries.
- If using apple jelly -- place in small microwave-safe bowl and heat in microwave until it is liquid (about 10-20 seconds). Gently and haphazardly brush on top of blueberries with a pastry brush for sheen.
- Serve & enjoy!
- Keep uneaten tarts refrigerated in an airtight container.
Nutrition
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Lemon Blueberry Tarts in Mason Jar Lids was originally published 4/29/16, updated 5/22/17
Katherine says
Mason jar lids…how fun is that? So creative! And pretty pictures too. These look delicious.
Sam says
Thank you, Katherine!
Shadi Hasanzadenemati says
Those photos look gorgeous! I love how creamy and velvety the filling is!
Sam says
Thank you so much, Shadi!
Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake says
I absolutely adore the idea of serving desserts in mason jar lids, particularly because I have an obsession with single serving desserrts. they’re just so cute.
These tarts sound absolutely delicious too, lemon and blueberry make a perfect pair!
I much prefer an imperfect lawn, all that manicuring is way too much effort for what is essentially a patch of grass – a mismatch of flowers and clovers etc is sooo much prettier (and yay bees!). And fun fact, the idea of the perfect lawn started in france just before the revolution and was used as a status simple. It was basically them saying “look how rich I am, i can afford to have a piece of land and do nothing useful with it!” Okay, I might have oversold that fact with the word “fun” – useless may have been a better word 😉
Sam says
YESSS I love single serving/mini desserts so much. And I’m glad you’re with me on the imperfect lawn. And I actually love that fact (darn those French for making this so commonplace!)… I’m going to be telling people this for a long time to come (I know, I’m fun at parties) 😉
Megan - The Emotional Baker says
We don’t devote a lot of time to yard maintenance either, probably because we’re in the kitchen too much 😉 But I’d say it’s worth it if I could make a great treat like these! I don’t have small tart shells, so using mason jar lids is genius!!
Sam says
Mason jars are so handy for so many things, aren’t they!? Thanks so much, Megan! 🙂
Lucy @ Globe Scoffers recipes says
Wow these are so pretty and your photos are stunning. Delicious!
Sam says
Thank you so much, Lucy!! 🙂
P at says
Yum Sam
Now what do I do with a husband who will want to eat all 16 at once and could. Great job and a big step up after the coconut cake. LOL my biggest hate on earth. All my life every Easter, my mom would hand grate a fresh coconut, then bake a 3 layer from scratch yellow cake. She would then top it with a homemade cooked marshmallow icing and cover it with the coconut. The entire family would go crazy over this cake and I hated it and still do. My mom told people she left the hospital with the wrong baby. I can’t sing either which is another reason why she said I was not hers. 🙂
Sam says
Haha! My husband is the exact same way about coconut cake, Pat. He was so disgusted that I was making it, but it’s a classic dessert on my mom’s side (though my family members are a mixed bag of lovers/haters of coconut… a lot of them complain about the texture). Your comment about your mom taking home the wrong baby made me laugh, I’m glad at least you like these tarts! 🙂 (PS. Zach hates everything lemon, too, so he was really an unhappy camper when I made the cake and tarts in the same weekend).
Marsha | Marsha's Baking Addiction says
What a clever idea to use mason jar lids for tarts! These look absolutely delicious, too!
Sam says
Thank you, Medha! 🙂