I learned to make these when I worked as a pastry baker at the Pointe Resort on South Mountain. We used to make fancy pastries for weddings, parties, conferences, whatever events people were having at the resort. Fruit tarts would appear on trays with an assortment of pastries such as chocolate eclairs, cream puffs, brownies, napoleons, chocolate mousse cups, petit fours, etc. Fresh fruit tarts were always my favorite because they're so pretty! And they have fresh fruit! They are not hard to make, but they do have quite a few steps. After you read the recipe, you might just be calling me to say, "Hey Sarah, can you just make me one?" :-)
Since this recipe comes from a resort/hotel bake shop, the original recipe calls for 8 lbs. of sugar, 13 lbs. of butter, 12 lbs. of flour, 2 gallons of milk, and 1 and 1/4 lb. of cornstarch (20 oz.). I have broken it down to a more manageable portion size, that you can handle in a home kitchen. Thankfully the internet has conversion charts where I could convert the lbs. to cups.
There are basically 2 recipes involved in making fruit tarts: the tart shell, which is like a shortbread cookie, and the cream filling, which is the same cream filling that you would put in a chocolate eclair or a cream puff. Once you have those 2 recipes prepared, you just have to assemble the fruit tarts; the subsequent steps involve melting the chocolate, slicing the fruit, melting the jelly and toasting the almonds.
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. sugar
2 sticks plus 2 Tbsp. butter
1 egg
4 and 3/4 cup cake flour
Cream together the sugar and butter in a mixer. Add the egg to the sugar and butter. Then add the flour until it's incorporated. Don't overmix the dough. For best results, you should refrigerate the dough for about an hour so you can roll it out. If you have to use it right away, it will be very soft, so you'll have to squish it down into the pans, it will be too soft to roll.
Prepare your pans: With this recipe, I made two 9-inch tarts, and three 4-inch tarts. You can get fancy tart pans at places like Williams-Sonoma in the mall, or you can use regular cake pans, chicken pot pie pans, or even muffin tins. I used 9-inch cake pans and 4-inch chicken pot pie pans. Grease or spray your pans. If you are using a cake pan, you can cut a circle of parchment or aluminum foil to go into the bottom of the pan, to make sure you can get the tart shell out of the pan.
Divide the dough into 3 or 4 sections, and roll the dough out with a little flour. Transfer the dough to the pan. If you are using a cake pan, trim the dough so it only goes 1/2 inch up the sides. Same for the smaller pans (an actual tart pan will have shorter sides that are only about 1/2 inch high). Poke holes all over the bottom of the raw dough and bake them in a 350 degree oven until they start to turn golden. Let the tart shells cool before filling them.
PASTRY CREAM (CREME ANGLAIS):
3 and 1/2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks (1/4 cup)
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup milk
2 sticks of butter
Mix together the 3 and 1/2 cups milk with the sugar and egg yolks. Bring these to a boil and remove from heat. Mix together the cornstarch and 1/2 cup milk, and add to the boiled mixture, stirring it with a wire whip (wire whisk). It will get really thick. Add the butter to the thickened mixture and continue stirring with the wire whip so the butter melts into the milk mixture. Now you have pastry cream. You'll need to cool the pastry cream before using it - put plastic wrap directly onto the pastry cream to avoid a skin forming on the top.
ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS:
Fresh fruit - strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, kiwi, mango
12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Clear jelly - if you can't find clear apricot, look for clear apple jelly
Small (2 oz.) bag of sliced almonds
Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler. If you don't have an
actual double boiler, you can use a pan and a bowl. The bowl has to be
bigger than the pan. Put about an inch of water in the pan, and place
the bowl on top. The water should not touch the bowl. Put the
chocolate chips in the bowl, and place the pan over medium heat. Stir
the chocolate chips a couple times with a rubber spatula while they're
melting. It will melt really fast. Make sure you don't get any water
in the chocolate, or else it will get lumpy.
Coat the bottoms and sides of the tart shells with the melted
chocolate. Don't be timid! Brush on a nice thick layer of chocolate. I
use a pastry brush that I got from Ace Hardware for 79 cents. Don't
worry, I never painted with it! The chocolate layer serves 2 purposes.
It tastes really yummy, and it also protects the tart shells from
getting soggy once you fill them with cream and fruit. Chill the tart
shells so the chocolate hardens before you add the rest of the
ingredients.
While the chocolate is cooling, slice the fruit really pretty. I just love all the beautiful colors!
When the chocolate is fully cooled, it's time to fill the tart shells with pastry cream up to the top. If you don't have a pastry bag, you can use a ziplock bag with a 1/2 inch hole cut in the corner to squeeze the cream out of. This will make it easy to squeeze out a nice layer of pastry cream. Use an offset spatula to smooth the pastry cream into an even layer that is even with the sides of the tart shell.
Now it's time for artistry! Arrange the sliced fruit on top of the pastry cream. If you're doing a circular design, start at the outer edge and work your way towards the middle. Be creative and use all your colors! So pretty!
Next, melt the jelly so you can brush it over the fruit to make it shiny and hold everything together. You can use a small pan or the microwave to melt it. Make sure you also brush some jelly over the edges of the tart shell so the almonds stick to it.
Finally, you have reached the last step in your fresh fruit tart-making journey! Toast the sliced almonds by putting them in a dry frying pan and heat them slowly on the stove. Stir them or flip them in the pan so they get mixed up. Watch these closely because once they start to turn golden, they will quickly burn. As soon as they start to get some color to them, they are ready. If you let them get brown, they are burned. Transfer the almonds to a cutting board and chop them coursely. Scoop the almonds into your hand and decorate the edges of the tart shell with the toasted almonds. Wow!!! Enjoy your fresh fruit tarts, they are beautiful AND delicious!!!
