Strawberry Almond Cream Tart

This one came from Cooking Light via Rose. I owe her BIG TIME for this one because this is the perfect dessert for summer when you want something light.

Strawberry-Almond Cream Tart

Crust:
9 sheets graham crackers
2 T sugar
2 T butter, melted
4 t water
cooking spray

Filling:
2/3 cup light cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract

Topping:
6 cups small fresh strawberries, divided
2/3 cup sugar
1 T cornstarch
1 T lemon juice
2 T sliced almonds, toasted

Preheat oven to 350.

To prepare crust, place crackers in a food processor; process until crumbly. Add 2T sugar, butter, and water; pulse just until moist. Place mixture in a 9-inch round tart pan (I used a pie dish) coated with cooking spray, pressing into bottom and up sides of pan to 3/4 inch. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack.

To prepare filling, combine filling ingredients in a small bowl, whisking until smooth. Spread evenly over bottom of tart shell. (I heated my filling in the microwave for 20 or 30 seconds so it was really soft and easy to spread.)

To prepare topping, place 2 cups strawberries in food processor; process until pureed. Combine strawberry puree, 2/3 cup sugar, and cornstarch in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low; cook 1 minute. Remove glaze from heat, cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Combine 4 cups strawberries and lemon juice, tossing to coat. Combine berries with glaze and pour into tart shell (if you want to be fancy, after you hull the berries, stand them up on the tart and then pour the glaze over. If you want to be lazy, just mix it all up and dump it in there. I'm lazy. At least tonight I was.) Sprinkle with nuts. Cover and chill 3 hours.

A few items: Rose told me to add an 2 T of almonds to the food processor with the graham crackers, and I think she's on to something there. Second, the recipe said to use only half of the glaze mixture, but I used all of it and it didn't seem too "glazy" at all, so use your judgement on how much of the pureed strawberry mixture you are going to need. Third, this yields 10 servings at 289 calories each, but I did some calculating and if you sub Splenda for all your sugar, and stretch it to 12 servings, this little devil comes in at 186 calories per serving. If you don't mind the artificial sweeteners and are thinking about swimsuit season, this could be worth it.