November 8, 2012
I made this fruit tart since I was going home to visit. My parents are big fans of fruity, not so sweet desserts, so I knew they would like this fruit tart. Berries are out of season, so be prepared to pay a little more if you want to use them for the tart. The various fruits make this tart very appealing because of the bright, vibrant colors.
You can find ready-made crust at the supermarket, but I made mine from scratch. It is a Pate Brise dough, and fairly easy to make and can be frozen if not used right away.
For the Pate Brise Dough
Ingredients:
250g cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
125g cold butter, cubed
65 mL water
Yield: two 8-in tarts
Directions:
- Sift cake flour, salt, sugar together.
- Cut-in butter into dries using a bench scraper until you get lentil-size pieces of butter.
- Form a well with the middle of the mixture. Add some water.
- Sift the mixture with fingers to combine the water with the dries.
- Add more water as needed, but be careful not to add too much water.
- Continue to sift mixture until the dough comes together.
- Wrap and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
- Carefully roll out dough and line tart mold.
- Blind bake the shell at 350F for 20-25 minutes.
For the pastry cream filling
Ingredients:
474mL milk
125g sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 egg yolks
50g cornstarch
Yield: ~2 cups, enough to fill one 8-in tart
Directions:
- Heat milk, vanilla, and half of the sugar in a saucepan. Occasionally whisk the mixture.
- In a bowl, whisk egg, yolks, sugar, cornstarch together.
- Once the milk mixture comes to a boil, temper the egg mixture with half the liquid. Whisk.
- Return the tempered mixture back to the saucepan.
- Heat on low while stirring constantly until the mixture slightly thickens, about two minutes.
- Cool pastry cream over an ice bath, or cool overnight before filling the tart shell.
Assembling
- Fill tart shell with pastry cream.
- Carefully cut and slice strawberries and kiwis.
- Arrange fruits in any pattern.
- Nappage fruits to give a glossy sheen. You can buy apricot preserves, dilute it with some water and heat the mixture up. Apply nappage using a pastry brush.
