Celebrate the Fourth of July with a blueberry yogurt tart

Bring a bit of red, white, and blue to your Fourth of July cookout with a creamy blueberry yogurt tart atop a gingery graham cracker crust.

When I made this beautiful summertime treat for the first time I was happy to discover that it's delicious, satisfying, cool and easy to make. In short, I think you're going to love it.

I saw the recipe that inspired this tart show up via Food & Wine and knew I wanted to earmark some of the fresh berries to try it out. Although I am typically only interested in desserts that contain chocolate, something about this one appealed to me very strongly. I think it was the spicy ginger in combination with tart yogurt and sweet berries. And since my husband is a confirmed ginger hound, I figured I could not go wrong.

I  more or less stuck with the recipe though I have made it tastier and less healthy (but come on, this is a DESSERT!) by substituting whole milk Greek yogurt for the non-fat and by basically doubling the amount of butter in the crust, adding more sugar, and removing the egg white as I did not feel like wasting an egg yolk.

I also added a sprinkling of cinnamon to the crust mixture. And think it would be good to include some lemon zest in the honeyed yogurt (though I had used up my last lemon so I could not try it.)

Despite the fact that all Greek yogurt has already been drained (I believe the extra draining is the only difference between Greek yogurt and other yogurts and what accounts for its characteristically firm texture), I followed the directions and drained the Greek yogurt for a number of hours before composing the tart. It did shed a little more water weight, becoming even firmer and creamier in the process. However, I think that if you were pressed for time, you could probably just use it as is.

I could not have been more pleased with the results – it is really just scrumptious.

A perfect summer dessert using fresh, local berries. Go pick some or just pick some up at your local farmers' market this week – you won't regret it!

Blueberry Yogurt Tart With Gingery Graham Cracker Crust
Makes one 9-inch tart

10-20 whole graham crackers, broken in half – enough to make 1-1/2 cups of crumbs
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
5 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 cups Greek yogurt (I used a tub of Fage's whole milk yogurt), drained overnight or for several hours
2 tablespoons honey
1 to 1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., and grease a pie dish or tart pan with removable bottom. In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers with the crystallized ginger, sugar, salt and cinnamon until finely ground. Add the melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are evenly coated.

2. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pie dish or tart pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned. Let the crust cool completely. (You can make the crust up to a day ahead of time and just keep it wrapped in a plastic bag in the fridge if you like.)

3. In a medium bowl, mix the drained yogurt with the honey and (optional) lemon zest. Spread the yogurt in the crust and arrange the blueberries over the surface of the yogurt in any pattern you like. You could also throw some raspberries in there for added color if you feel like it. Cut the tart in slices and sit back to enjoy the oohs and aahs...

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