ON THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME...ARE YOU READY?? STRAWBERRY, MASCARPONE & GINGERSNAP TART..CAN YOU SAY YUMMY?

The 12 Days of Christmas Baking If your looking to impress your guest on Christmas, this is the recipe to make! This recipe is very simple and the only part you have to bake is the crust for 8 minutes!

We came across this tart on www.rubbermecker.typepad.com. The minute we saw it we knew we HAD to make it! We've never used gingersnap cookies to make a crust, so we were very excited to try it. It looks the same as a graham cracker crust, but it will surprise your guests when they bite into it. The original recipe is with nectarines, but we used strawberries instead. We also skipped the peach jam and just macerated the strawberries in sugar before we put them on the tart. What we might say next might shock you and scare you away from doing it, but we promise its really easy to do. A few weeks ago we came across a recipe to make homemade mascarpone cheese. It didn't even dawn on us that you can make mascarpone cheese yourself. We were scared to try it, but now that we have we don't think we will go back to using the store bought one. Not only is it MUCH cheaper to make it yourself, but the homemade version was much more creamier. Check out the

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

Ok we're back on track with Tuesday's with Dorie (TWD). We missed a few weeks in a row... Between Maria's wedding and both of us fixing up our new homes, it leaves little time for baking. This weeks recipe was this lemon tart. When we first read the recipe we were kind of worried... the recipe included one and a half lemons... the ENTIRE lemons! Without the seeds of course. We don't know about you, but we have always read that you should never use the white part in lemons because it's very bitter...

We still followed the exact recipe because we wanted to see what would happen. So what did we think?...

At first bite, it tasted just like any other lemon bars. Then once you swallowed that bite and let it flavors set in, you could taste it... the bitterness.. It was just a little bit though. Maria tasted it more.

Our mom tried it and thought it was really good! She loves anything lemon. She didn't know that the recipe called for the enitire lemons so maybe that's why? Who knows!

The recipe was chosen by this blog, Babette Feasts.

We would make this again, but as many members did, just use the inside of lemon and the skin. This recipe was super easy and fast to make! =)