Fresh Fruit Tart

This classic, classic fresh fruit tart recipe combines three equally delicious elements: a crisp, buttery crust, sweet and silky vanilla pastry cream, and heaps of fresh mixed fruit. The result is an elegant dessert that comes together easily and will be the hit of any party.

An Old Favorite That’s Always Fresh

My first after-school job was at a fancy French patisserie. To date, it remains my all-time favorite job (except this one, of course). For one weekday after school and a shift or two on weekends, I bustled around the little pink bakery, boxing opéra cakes, petits fours, and chocolate truffles for customers, and helping myself to the occasional brioche or croissant.

Best of all was a Sunday shift. The patisserie was closed on Mondays, so when the bakery closed on Sunday afternoon, I got to come home with boxes and boxes of free cakes, pastries, éclairs, mousses, and perhaps the best of all: fruit tarts.

I love a classic French fruit tart. The tart is a gorgeous round butter tart shell filled with silky vanilla pastry cream, topped with generous fresh mixed fruit arranged as beautifully as a work of art. And it tastes just as good as it looks. You can have fun arranging the fruit; around 4th of July, I like to arrange berries into a flag design tart. (Come fall, you may like this French custard apple tart.)

If you like savory tarts, check out this Leek and Goat Cheese tart recipe.

How to Make This Fruit Tart Recipe

There are three main components to this fruit tart:

• A shortbread tart shell, also known as a short dough crust or pâte sucrée
• Vanilla custard, also known as vanilla pastry cream or crême pâtissière
• Lots of beautiful fresh fruit, arranged on top of the pastry cream
• Apricot glaze to make the tart shine and lock in the fruit’s freshness

Let’s go into a little more detail.

How to Make This Fresh Fruit Tart Recipe

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this fruit tart. For exact quantities, see the full recipe, below.

For the Vanilla Pastry Cream

• whole milk
• sugar
• cornstarch
• egg
• egg yolks
• pure vanilla extract
• unsalted butter, cut into pieces

For the Pastry Crust

• 1 recipe pâte sucrée (sweet tart dough)

To Finish

• 2 pints fresh berries of choice
• Sliced fruit, such as one sliced kiwi or mango
• Apricot jam, to glaze

Step-by-Step Instructions

Full and thorough directions are in the recipe card, but here’s the basic outlines of the steps to make this fresh fruit tart.

1. Make the pastry shell dough. Roll the dough into a disk and chill, then roll to 10″ wide and drape it into the tart shell. Trim the scrap. Dock the bottom of the crust all over with the tines of a fork. Chill again. Blind bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the pie weights, and continue baking for 5 to 10 minutes more, until golden brown. Cool fully.
2. Make the pastry cream. Chill, covered, until ready to use.
3. Spread the pastry cream into the tart shell. Smooth until you have a nice, even layer.
4. Top with fresh fruit, arranged as you’d like.
5. Glaze with apricot jam, strained and thinned with a little water.

For another custard and fruit dessert, get the recipe for Southern Banana Pudding, topped with fluffy meringue.

Notes on Making Pastry Cream for the Fresh Fruit Tart

While the pastry crust is in process, you’ll make the vanilla custard filling. The custard is a traditional vanilla pastry cream, sweet and silky and made from milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, butter, and cornstarch as a thickener. Pastry cream requires only a few ingredients, but you will need a little bit of technique savvy.

Here’s how to troubleshoot any potential pastry cream issues:

• Stir. A lot. Once you add the eggs to the pot of hot milk, the eggs risk cooking instead of emulsifying into a custard. So stir constantly and scrape the sides and bottom of the pot continuously. That’s where the “scrambled eggs” like to form.
• Eliminate clumps. If you do accidentally form coagulated egg bits, just strain the finished pastry cream with a fine mesh strainer. Done.
• If you’re storing your pastry cream, lay plastic wrap directly on top to prevent “skin” from forming.
• Use your pastry cream within two days (preferably one). The cornstarch will weep its absorbed moisture through a fancy-sounding process called starch retrogradation, and the pastry cream will become rubbery.

Choosing the Fruit for Your Fresh Fruit Tart

Which fruit works best for a mixed fruit tart? Which should you avoid?

Fresh berries are a top choice for a fruit tart. Berries look gorgeous and generally stay perky longer than cut fruit. Other good fruit for a tart includes mango and kiwi slices. Mango and kiwi add a great pop of color and will not oxidize and turn brown quickly. (Check it out: Learn how to cut a kiwi.)

Avoid melon and other fruit with high moisture content, like sliced citrus. These will look wilted quickly and seep moisture into the pastry cream. Also avoid oxidizing fruit like apples and bananas. These fruits will turn brown and make the fruit tart look old and less pretty.

How to Arrange Fruit on a Mixed Fruit Tart

Here’s your chance to be creative and have fun. My biggest guideline for arranging fruit on top of the pastry cream-filled tart is to be generous with the fruit. I try to show as little pastry cream as possible.

You can do a more traditional French design of carefully-arranged fruit, a more free-form fruit pattern, or a mix. Have fun! If you’d like to do a mango or kiwi slice rosette, start from the outside and work your way to the center, overlapping each slice a little on top of the next.

How (and Why) to Glaze the Fresh Fruit Tart With Apricot Jam

Finally, heat some apricot jam thinned with a bit of water, strain, and dab it all over the fruit with a pastry brush. The jam will give a shiny, finished look to the tart, and help seal in freshness.

You will also love these fantastic desserts:

• Apple, Sage & Gruyère Scones
• Lemon Curd Tart
• Poached Orange Ginger Cake
• Blackberry Coffee Cake