Frozen Lemonade Tarts

Frozen Lemonade Tarts are the best way to celebrate Girl Scout cookie season! I was a Girl Scout. I remember earning badges, skits that made us laugh, and quite literally crossing over the bridge from Brownies over to Juniors. I even remember learning how to cover matches with wax to protect them from the rain while camping – only in Western Washington would a girl need to know that. So many memories have been made because of Girl Scouts… so many smiles.

Frozen Lemonade Tarts

Preheat oven at 350°F.

Crust

• 9 ounces Savannah Smiles Girl Scout cookies (or lemon sandwich cookies)
• 1 stick of butter

Filling

• 3/4 sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• Dash of salt
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 egg yolks
• Juice and rind of 2 medium lemons
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 6 ounces container vanilla yogurt

Topping

• Whipped cream (heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar)
• 21 Savannah Smiles cookies
• 8 adorable red-striped paper straws
  (cut into thirds to make mini straws)

Toss Savannah Smiles into a food processor and turn it to the lowest setting to crumble cookies.

Melt the stick of butter and drizzle over crushed cookies.

Using pulse setting, mix until all the lemony cookies are covered in butter.

Press crust Savannah Smile crust into the mini cheesecake pan. This is a very handy little pan to have indeed. Bake for about 8-9 minutes. When done, set aside to cool.

To make filling, place sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Measure cream, milk, and eggs and set aside.

Using a Microplane grater, zest lemon rind into a bowl. Add lemon juice to the bowl as well. Set aside.

Mise en Place (MEEZ-ahn-plahs). In plain English, this means to have your ingredients ready to go – you know, like a good Girl Scout.

Whisk cream, milk, eggs, and lemon juice into sugar, cornstarch & salt. Whisk together very well. Add butter. Continue to whisk while cooking on medium-low heat. When it begins to boil, remove it from heat.

Continue whisking until thick (happens quickly after it starts to boil). Set aside and allow to cool. You can place it in the fridge to speed the cooling process along.

After the lemon filling has cooled, whisk the yogurt into the filling until well mixed.

Whiskey business.

Place a scant 1/4 cup of filling into each tart pan. Smooth tops just a bit. Freeze for about 1 1/2 hours. Remove tarts from the pan and remove the metal piece from the bottom of each tart.

Make fresh whipped cream and place it into a decorating bag with a large border tip. Swirl whipped cream on top of each tart. For fun, you can add a Savannah Smile on the top and cut paper straws into thirds, and serve in matching cupcake liners.

100 years of building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. Well done, Girl Scouts. Well done. Happy birthday from one of those girls.

Happy 100th Birthday, Girl Scouts!

This blog post is brought to you by a Girl Scout who earned her baking badge and the Girl Scouts of Western Washington.