French Fruit Tart

Although I went to culinary school to study culinary arts, my Chef knew right from the start I had a very strong pastry hand. Our usual classes used to be a demo by the chef and each student replicates the dish from what they learnt from the Chef. On days we had pastry our Chef used to look forward to my plate in particular for the fine perfection I achieve on them.Even my classmate he always says you should be a pastry chef rather than a culinary chef.

Have you ever walked by those fancy French patisseries and wished you could make one of those fancy looking fruit tarts yourself? Well, your wishes have come true. Using this recipe you will be able to make a lovely summer fruit tart.

With summer shining bright and sunny upon us and presenting us with a bounty of summer berries, this fruit tart is made with a Pate Sucree( a.k.a Sugar dough or Sweet Dough) filled with a delicious Creme Legere( A combination of Creme Patisserie(Pastry cream) and whipped cream) and adorned with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, cara cara oranges and white peach , all glazed with an apricot nappage.

If there are sinful things that I would eat by the spoonfuls this Creme Legere would sit right in the second place, chocolate ganache being the first in order and mousses being the third in place.I simply cannot resist this stuff. This would be a perfect dish to serve for a summer party or gathering with family and friends.

Do you have any such sinful indulgences that you can’t fight?

Preparation time	1 hour
Serves	8
Serving Size	1 serving
Calories Per Serving	Approximately 400 per serving
Difficulty	Advanced

Ingredients:

Pate Sucree(Sweet /Sugar Dough):

1/3 cup of powdered sugar

3 tablespoons of butter

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 heaped teaspoon of baking powder

1  1/3 cups Cake flour

Creme Legere Filling:

2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

7 teaspoons all-purpose flour

7 teaspoons corn starch

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or half fresh vanilla bean scraped)

1 teaspoon bourbon whiskey or kirsch(optional)

Fruit:

1/2 pound strawberries washed and dried stems removed

segments from 1 orange

6 oz blueberries washed and dried

6oz raspberries washed and dried

1 Kiwi peeled and sliced

Nappage:

3 tablespoons apricot jam

Procedure:

1.For the tart shell, take the butter and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk until light and airy.

2.Add egg and mix just until combined.

3.Add the sifted cake flour, salt and baking powder all at one and mix just until combined.

4.Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until chilled.

4.Once chilled, roll out the dough in a circle between two pieces of parchment to the size of your 8-inch tart pan( +1 inch account for the length of the sides as well)

5.Take the top parchment off and lift the dough with the bottom parchment and place it directly on the tart pan, adjusting the dough using the parchment paper so it reaches all the corners without tearing. Taper of the dough along the edges and chill for 30 mins.

6.Preheat oven to 350F. Cover the dough with parchment and beans or pie weights(used to keep the tart from developing bubbles and keeping it flat) and bake for 10 minutes, remove the beans and parchment and bake for 15 more minutes and remove from the oven and let chill.

7.For the filling, bring the milk to a simmer and add vanilla to it.

8.In a bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light and foamy.Add the sifted cornstarch and all-purpose flour and mix until combined.

9.Add the steaming milk in a stream while mixing to temper the egg yolks.

10.Add this mixture back into the pan and bring to a boil on a medium flame while mixing continuously to avoid burning and cook for 3 minutes for the rawness of the starch to disappear.Transfer this mixture to a container and cover with cling wrap with the wrap covering the surface of the mixture.This is called Creme Patisserie or Pastry cream.

11.In a separate bowl whisk the whipping cream to stiff peaks.

12.Whisk the cooled pastry cream once to avoid any lumps, if you are using any liquor to flavor the fruit mix it in now and fold the whipped cream into it.

13.Transfer the cream into a pastry bag fitted with a round piping tip and pipe it in concentric circles so you have uniform mixture all around the pastry and smooth with a spatula.

14.Arrange the fruits in such a manner to cover all of the pastry cream.

15.In a bowl microwave the apricot nappage with 1 tablespoon water and mix well till it reaches a glaze consistency, strain the mixture and brush it onto the fruit until it is uniformly covered. Serve immediately or refrigerate not more than 1-2 hours.

Tips:

The tart shell can be made 1-2 days in advance and stored in an airtight container at room temperature and pastry cream can be made 1-2 days in advance and stored in with a cling wrap right on top of it and in the refrigerator.

Consume these tarts within 1-2 hours after filling them because the fruits start to release water and the tart can get soggy and dilute the pastry cream as well.Also, keep them refrigerated until ready to consume.

Tha apricot nappage has to be in a glaze consistency if it’s too liquidy it will seep into the pastry cream and dilute it.

The tart shell recipe is enough for an 8 inch tart, if you are using a bigger one, please make some additional dough. Do not roll the current dough thinly to accommodate for a bigger tart pan it will be fragile and can break.

If your whipped cream is not whipped to stiff peaks it will get very liquidy as a filling.

If you want the creme Legere to be a bit more firm, you can add one leaf of gelatin to the pastry cream and then fold in whipped cream and refrigerate it in a piping bag until set and then pipe it into the tart shell.

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