French Fruit Tarts
French Fruit Tarts – Colorful, fresh, and bursting with juicy fruits with a deliciously sweet pastry crust, and a finger-licking fruit tart glaze, all comes together! OMG!!
Fruit Tart is the heart of the table after finishing the meal. Creamy custard filling, surrounded by a crisp sweet pastry shell and lots of beautiful fruits takes this French dessert to an outstanding level. I can bet, you, your family and your guests will love the play of textures and refreshing taste of these beautiful eye-catchy fresh fruit tartlets.
“This Fresh fruit tart recipe makes a showstopper dessert that is perfect for your ‘Special Eid Dessert’ this year!”
by Rocking Recipes
You can make giant versions to feed a whole group or make mini fruit tartlets for individual servings. I made mini versions because I love this serving size for my family.
The delicious fruit tarts are a wonderful dessert idea for entertaining, especially with the upcoming berry season when fresh berries are at their best!
healthline.com
Each type of fruit brings its own unique set of nutrients and benefits to the table. The key is to eat fruits of various colors, as each color provides a different set of healthy nutrients.
What is a Tart Base?
A tart is a sweet or savory dish made from pastry dough with a firm, crumbly crust (almost cookie-like texture). Tarts are typically baked in a pan with shallow sides and a removable bottom since they only have a bottom crust, and are unmolded before serving.
There are 4 components to most classic French fruit tart recipes:
- A sweet pastry crust,
- Vanilla-flavored pastry cream filling,
- Fresh juicy fruits and
- a Tart glaze.
Equipment you need:
Tart baking pan/cupcake tray or mini tart molds and a round cutter
Well, you can use almost any fruit you like the most to create this beautiful French Fruit Tart! Like in Paris, you mostly see strawberry tarts with whole strawberries standing on end, raspberry tarts with piles of delicious red or golden raspberries, or mixed fruit tarts like this one that I made with strawberries, blueberries, sliced kiwi fruit, peaches, and raspberries arranged in a decorative pattern over the vanilla pastry cream – yummmm!!!
What is the Filling in Fruit Tarts?
Milk, eggs, vanilla, sugar corn starch, and butter are used to prepare the tart’s pastry creme and generally this custard-type delicious filling is filled in French Fruit Tarts.
What Fruits Can be Used to Make Fruit Tarts?
Here are some options for you:
- Blueberries
- Peaches
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
- Kiwis
- Grapes
- Strawberries
- Apricots
- Mangoes
- Oranges
What is Crème Patissière (Pastry Cream)?
Pastry cream (also known as crème patissière) is a thick, creamy custard with a silky-smooth texture that can be used for filling cakes, tarts, cream puffs, eclairs, and other desserts.
Crème Patissière is made with milk, cream, sugar, salt, cornstarch, egg yolks, butter, and vanilla for flavoring (although you could use different extracts to change it up in other desserts.)
Fruit Tart Glaze
This step is so easy, but in many of the fruit tart recipes, people leave this to add. I will highly recommend adding a tart glaze as it gives a beautiful shine to the tarts and adds extra flavor as well.
All that is used to glaze a fruit tart is a warmed-up, light-colored jelly or jam that gets gently brushed on to make the fruit shine. Apple jelly or apricot preserves are my favorite options for a fruit tart glaze. Heat up half a cup of the preserves or jelly just until warm and stir until it is smooth. Then just dip a pastry brush into it and dab it on the fruit decorating your tart.
If you love other French desserts like chocolate croissants, baguettes, macarons, and crepes, then you will definitely love these beautifully decorated and flavorful fresh fruit tarts.
So, let’s start the recipe now!
You may also like: French Fruit Tart Recipe Card!
Authentic French Fruit Tarts Recipe
Equipment
- Mini tart molds
- A round cutter
Ingredients
For Tart Base:
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour, (plain flour), heaped
- 6 TBSP Icing sugar, or powdered sugar, (heaped)
- 6 TBSP Butter, salted, (softened)
- 1/2 TSP Vanilla Essence/Extract
- 1 small Egg
- Salt, a pinch
For Custard Filling:
- Pastry Custard Cream crème patissière / crema pasticcera
- 250 ml Whole milk
- 5 TBSP White Sugar
- 3 Egg yolks
- 1 TBSP Corn starch, (corn flour)
- 2 TBSP All-Purpose Flour (plain flour )
- 1 TSP vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
For Topping:
- 3 Kiwi, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced 3/8-inch thick
- 10-12 Strawberries, hulled and sliced in half
- 1/2 cup Mandarin Oranges, (tin-packed, drained)
- 1/2 cup Blueberries
- 1/4 cup Raspberries
- 1/2 cup Apple Jelly, or Apricot Preserves, warmed
Instructions
Step#1: Make Tart base
- With hands, rub together butter and sugar.
- When sugar is absorbed, mix them thoroughly for 2 minutes with the help of a whisk or a beater.
- Add the egg and mix for 2 minutes.
- Add flour and make a dough. The dough should not be sticky. Add more flour if it's sticky. (you can use chilled water 2tbs if having problem making the dough)
(*** If you are using a stand mixer, add the cubed butter, sugar, salt and vanilla to a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix for about 2 minutes or until it's homogeneous) - Add the egg yolks and mix until combined.
- Add the flour and mix until shaggy, about 45 seconds.
- Once the dough is made cover with the sheet of a plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes to make if firm.
- Preheat the oven at 190c (gas mark) or 375 degrees F.
- After 30 min take out the dough and dust the surface with flour.
- Roll out the dough until a slightly thin sheet is formed then cut it with a cutter of any shape (I used a round cutter)
- Now transfer these roundels to your tart molds, pressing into the corners and fluted sides of the pan.
- Run the rolling pin over the top of the pan so that the excess dough gets cut off, make the edges clean.
- Patch any edges that are too thin with excess dough, trimming away the edge again as necessary.
- Prick the bottom with a fork and keep them in the freezer for 10 minutes again.
- When ready to bake the tart shell,s keep them in the preheated oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the tart shells are fully baked and golden.
- Cool completely before filling.
- Note: You can store the tart shells in large airtight boxes and use as required.
For a larger Tart:
- The pastry dough making process is the same (but follow the following steps for larger base)
- Roll out the pastry crust on a lightly floured surface until it is slightly larger than your tart pan (for eg: a 9-inch pan)
- Carefully transfer the dough to the pan by rolling it onto the rolling pin, then gently easing the dough into the pan.
- Cut off the extra dough from the sides and prick the bottom with the fork and pinch the sides well by trimming away the extra edges.
- Freeze the tart shell for 30 minutes.
- Press a double layer of foil into the frozen tart shell, covering the edges of the pan and filling the tart shell with pie weights (or raw rajma beans.)
- Bake for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through, then carefully remove the pie weights and foil and bake another 5 to 10 minutes, until the tart shell is fully baked and golden.
- Cool completely before filling.
Step#2: To make the Pastry Custard Cream (crème patissière / crema pasticcera)
- Heat your milk in a saucepan just until below boiling point.
- Meanwhile, whisk your flour, starch, sugar and egg yolks until smooth and pale in color.
- When the milk is warm, temper your egg-flour mixture by adding it slowly while whisking.
- Cook the mixture on medium-low, whisking continuously until thickens and a few bubbled burst on the surface, about 30 seconds.
- Remove the mixture from the heat.
- Add in vanilla extract, mix well.
- Then transfer to a bowl and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap placed directly onto the surface of the pastry cream so a skin doesn’t form.
- Refrigerate until chilled and firm, about 3 hours.
Step#3: Tart Assembling
- When the tart shell is completely cooled, spread/fill the pastry cream over the bottom of the shell.
- Arrange the fruits in a decorative fashion over the cream.
- Melt the jelly or preserves in a small saucepan or the microwave, stirring until smooth.
- Use a pastry brush to gently dab the melted jelly over the fruit. This will help preserve the fruit and give it a beautiful glossy shine.
Delicious and Beautiful French Fruit Tarts are ready. Serve and Enjoy!
NUTRITION INFORMATION
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. Please contact your dietician or nutritionist for further help.
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