This idea for this Crescent Moon Cookie Tart has been brewing in my mind for a little while now and despite how busy Ramadan can get, I wanted to make sure I got it to you in time for Eid. I love cookie cakes. I’ve been making them so much lately and they’re always a hit. I’ve made them for both my sister in laws birthdays, for my nieces first birthday and even for my friend’s Mendhi party.
I’ve even made them using a store bought pastry hack to make EID letters for Eid last year. Definitely check out that post if you want an easy version. You could even use the shortcrust pastry hack for this one or follow the full recipe below for something more involved.
Cookie Tarts are so delicious and fairly easy to make. Plus you can get creative with it, the toppings are really up to you. You can theme it by colour, by fruits, with chocolate, flowers or however you like. For this one I used colour as my theme and stuck to gold/yellow fruits, passionfruit, gold kiwis and I even made some yellow meringues. This was to mimic the glistening crescent in the night sky.
You can make the template by marking a circle with a 9 inch pan on a piece of paper and then marking off a smaller circle with an 8 inch pan to create the crescent shape. If you don’t have pans I also created a printable so you can easily print and make it your self (just remember to print to this at 100% on your printer so it ends up the same size).
I hope you make this Crescent Moon Cookie Tart and enjoy it with friends and family this Eid whether in person (if allowed) or virtually.
Crescent Moon Cookie Cake
Ingredients
Cookie
- 113 grams unsalted butter (softened)
- ¼ cup icing (powdered) sugar
- 1 egg yolk (reserve the white for the meringues)
- 1 ¼ cup plain flour
- ½ cup almond meal
- pinch salt
Cream Cheese Filling
- 125 grams cream cheese
- ¾ cup thickened cream (heavy whipping)
- ⅓ cup castor sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
Meringues
- 1 egg white (use the white from the yolk used for the cookie)
- ¼ cup castor sugar
- a few drops of yellow food colouring
Other Toppings
- 2 passionfruits
- 1 gold kiwis
- meringues (recipe above)
Instructions
Cookie
- In a stand (or hand) mixer, place in butter and sugar.
- Beat until the sugar is incorporated and the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Add in the egg yolk and mix till incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, almond meal and salt.
- Add your flour mixture into your butter mixture and mix on a low speed until just combined.
- Form the cookie dough into a ball and place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the fridge, place on a piece of baking paper and roll a large circle to just under ½cm (5mm/¼inch).
- Cut out your crescent template and place it on one edge of the dough.
- Cut out the the 2 crescents from the dough. Remove excess dough from the baking paper.
- Place the baking paper on a cookie sheet and place in the fridge.
- Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
- Place the remaining dough on another piece of baking paper and roll to ½cm.
- Cut out stars of varying sizes until all the dough is used up.
- Place on a tray and in the fridge to chill
- Once the oven is heated, place the cookie sheets in and bake till cooked and turning golden, 15-17 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Cream Cheese Filling
- Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand (or hand) mixer.
- Beat till smooth and creamy.
- Add in your cream, vanilla and beat until it thickens and is like stiff whipped cream. This may be sloppy at first, but continue to beat for about 30 seconds and it should start to firm up.
- Fill into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm tip and place in the fridge.
Meringues
- Preheat your oven to 120C (250F) and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Place the egg white in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until soft peaks.
- Slowly add in your sugar until the egg white becomes stiff and the sugar has dissolved.
- Place the meringues into a piping bag fitted with a piping tip (I used a star shaped tip). If you want to add in colour, you can spread some food colouring onto the inside of the piping bag.
- Pipe little mounds (approximately 2½cm/1inch in width) onto the baking sheet and place in the oven for 45 minutes.
- When the meringues have baked, open the door slightly and let the meringues cool down completely in the oven.
Assembly
- Peel and slice your kiwis and slice open your passionfruit.
- Pipe your cream cheese filling in little mounds on the edges of the crescent and then fill in the centre.
- Place your second cookie on top of the filling and pipe the edges just as you did with the first cookie.
- Top with kiwis, passionfruit, meringues, star cookies and any other toppings of your choosing.
- Can be stored for up to 1 day in the fridge, reserve your toppings to place on the tart fresh before serving. We had this 2 days after making, it does mean the cookie turns soft making it more cake like which is still absolutely delicious.
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