Fabulous French Fruit Tart
The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts,
– Nursery Rhyme.
All on a summer’s day;
The Knave of Hearts he stole the tarts,
And took them clean away.
The King of Hearts called for the tarts,
And beat the Knave full sore.
The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts,
And vowed he’d steal no more.
Pâte sucrée? Crème pâtissière? Fresh fruit? Um, yes please.
Though sweet shortcrust pastry (aka pâte sucrée) can be notoriously finicky (as can crème pâtissière), I love making it. I’m a big fan of tarts in general, not least because they’re so damn pretty. I get excited over the fluted pans alone, not to mention the pastry itself. (Is there a term for ‘baking geek’?) While a deep-dish, messy pie is all well and good, sometimes it’s the elegance of the tart that you’re after.
And elegance is baked into the very concept of a tart (pun intended), as the tart’s short crust appears to have been in common use among the nobility by 1550. Pies, on the other hand – older and in common use since around 1350 – were a commoner’s food, often a way of using up offal and table scraps.
Reality Bakes
I had to improvise a little with this one regarding the glaze. I didn’t have the usual ingredients on hand so you’re getting instructions for the improvised glaze here. And you’d never guess from the finished product that my crust was a hot mess to begin with this time. It was a hot day and it seemed nothing would stay chilled. I had to roll the dough out three times – not good for sweet shortcrust – and it kept tearing. I wish I’d taken a picture of it because I swear, it looked like a crazy quilt. But all’s well that ends well, right? I did overbake it slightly but I gotta tell you, it tasted wonderful – not too sweet and providing a great texture and flavor with the smooth, satiny crème pâtissière.
French Fruit Tart
Ingredients
For the pastry cream:
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk*
- 1/2 cup heavy cream*
- 1/2 vanilla bean slit lengthwise; or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 5 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
For the crust:
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 8 tbsp (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
For the fruit:
- 10-14 medium to large strawberries, hulled and halved lengthwise and sliced about 1/4-inch thick
- 3 kiwis, peeled and halved lengthwise and sliced about 3/8-inch thick
- 1 cup raspberries
- 1/2 cup blueberries
For the glaze (optional):
- 6 oz frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup sugar
Instructions
Pastry cream:
- Combine the milk and cream, salt, and vanilla pod and seeds (scraped out) in a medium saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally. (If you're using vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean, add it at the very end.)
- As the milk/cream heats, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until mixture is thick. Add the cornstarch and whisk hard until mixture is thick, pale yellow, and creamy.
- When the milk mixture reaches a full simmer, remove and discard the vanilla pod, and pour about half of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture in a slow trickle while whisking to temper the yolks. Return the tempered egg mixture to the saucepan with the remaining milk/cream mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thick and glossy.
- Remove pastry cream from the heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl. Whisk in the cold butter and vanilla extract (if vanilla bean not used earlier). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until chilled and set, at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.
Crust:
- Whisk together the yolk, cream and vanilla in a small bowl.
- Place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and process briefly to combine. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse to cut the butter in until the mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-sized lumps, about 8 brief pulses.
- With the processor still running, add the liquid egg mixture and process until the dough just comes together around the blade.
- Turn the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and press into a 6-inch disk. Wrap the dough in the plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes to soften slightly. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until crust is slightly larger than your tart pan, about a 13-inch round. (If too sticky, try rolling between 2 lightly floured large sheets of parchment or plastic wrap.)
- Carefully transfer the dough to a 9- to 9½-inch tart pan. (It helps to use the rolling pin for this.) Ease the dough into the pan corners and press the dough against the fluted sides of the pan. Run the rolling pin over the top of the tart pan to remove the excess dough. Patch any thin spots or tears with the excess dough and trim away the edge again, if necessary.
- Freeze the tart crust in the pan for 30 minutes.
- When ready to blind bake the crust, preheat oven to 375°F. Set the dough-lined tart pan on a baking sheet and line the crust (bottom and sides) with foil or parchment. Fill with pie weights (rice, beans, ceramic, whatever you use) and bake for 20 minutes, rotating halfway through the baking time. Remove shell from the oven, carefully remove the foil and weights, dock the crust (prick with the tines of a fork), then continue to bake until a golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes longer. Cool completely before filling.
Glaze (optional):
- Combine the lemonade, cornstarch, lemon juice, and sugar in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until clear and thick, about 2 minutes. Let cool.
Assembly:
- Spread the cold pastry cream over the bottom of the tart shell. (An offset spatula is great for this but a spoon will work, too.) Arrange the fruit decoratively over the cream, placing strawberry slices in a circle, then the kiwis, and then mound raspberries in the middle, and sprinkle blueberries throughout. (You can change up your fruit depending on what's in season.) If glazing, use a pastry brush to glaze the entire tart. (You will not use all of the glaze.) Remove the outer ring of the tart pan, place the tart on a serving platter, and serve.
Notes
