Homemade Fresh Fruit Tarts

Name: Homemade Fresh Fruit Tarts
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: 1 beautiful fresh fruit tart
Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 3 tablespoons sugar; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 8 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter (1 stick); 3 -4 tablespoons ice water; 3 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature; 6 tablespoons sugar; 1 1/4 tablespoons cornstarch; 1 cup milk; 1 tablespoon unsalted butter; 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 1 tablespoon heavy cream; 1/2 teaspoon cognac or 1/2 teaspoon brandy; 1/4-1/2 cup sliced bananas or 1/4-1/2 cup fresh plum, sliced; 1/2 cup apricot jam; sliced orange, to garnish (optional); sliced lime, to garnish (optional); toasted almond, sliced, to garnish (optional)

Submitted by Manami

"This fresh fruit tart is the dessert equivalent of a well-tied elegant silk scarf, rather than lined up in precise rows, the fruit is arranged in a casual, accidental-looking style. All the tart components can be made in advance and assembled just before serving. Created by Ina Garten. From the April 200 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. Select about 4-5 different fruits; choose tropical, citrus and berries, or just a nice melange. Haven't posted chill times nor have included the time allowed for making parts of the recipe, days in advance."

Download

photo by -Sabrina-

Ready In:: 1hr 40mins
Ingredients:: 18
Yields:: 1 beautiful fresh fruit tart

ingredients

PASTRY
1 ¹⁄₄ cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter (1 stick)
3 -4 tablespoons ice water
PASTRY CREAM
3 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
6 tablespoons sugar
1 ¹⁄₄ tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
¹⁄₂ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon heavy cream
¹⁄₂ teaspoon cognac or 1/2 teaspoon brandy
TOPPINGS
¹⁄₄ - ¹⁄₂ 1/4-1/2 cup sliced bananas or 1/4-1/2 cup fresh plum, sliced
GLAZE
¹⁄₂ cup apricot jam
GARNISH
sliced orange, to garnish (optional)
sliced lime, to garnish (optional)
toasted almond, sliced, to garnish (optional)

directions

PASTRY:
Combine flour, sugar and salt and place in freezer for 30 minutes.
Cut butter into 1/4" pieces.
Put flour mxiture in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade.
Add butter and pulse about 10 times until butter forms small bits. Add ice water and process until dough comes together. Place on a well-floured board and form into a disc.
Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 to 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Remove dough from refrigerator and let sit 5 minutes.
Roll dough into 1/16" thick circle, large enough to hang slightly over the sides of a 10" tart pan with removable bottom.
Place dough in pan and cut off excess dough with a sharp knife or your thumb.
Line tart shell with aluminum foil, then fill with dried beans or rice.
Bake 10 minutes. Remove beans and foil; prick bottom of a shell with tines of fork to allow steam to eascape.
Bake another 20 minutes until browned. Cool to room temperature.
PASTRY CREAM:
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment(or using a hand held mixer), beat egg yolks and sugar on medium-speed about 3 minutes, until mixture is light yellow and falls back into bowl in a ribbon. On low speed, beat in cornstarch.
In a large saucepan, bring milk to a simmer. Slowly pour milk into egg mxiture, whisking steadily, then pour back into saucepan.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk or a wooden spoon until mixture is thick, about 4 minutes.
Bring to a boil and cook then on low heat 2-3 more minutes. (Taste to be sure cornstach is cooked.).
Remove from heat; mix in butter, vanilla, cream and cognac. Pour through a strainer into a bowl.
Place plastic wrap directly onto custard(so it won't form a skin) and refrigerate until cold.
ASSEMBLY & GARNISHES:
Place baked tart shell on serving plate and spread with pastry cream over bottom of shell.
Slice and group fruit to make casual arrangement. Place larger fruit first, then fill spaces with berries &/or grapes. Use colorful fruit, such as halved strawberries or a grouping of raspberries, near the center for focus and height.
(other fruit garnishes besides the ones listed above -- fresh orange, sliced or fresh lime, sliced or fresh apricot, sliced or fresh peach, sliced).
Place sprinkling of almonds over tart, and use oranges &/or limes to garnish.
GLAZE:
In small saucepan(or microwave-safe bowl), melt jelly with 1 tablespoon water.
Brush glaze over fruit and serve as soon as possible to avoid soggy pastry.
*TIP: Don't be afraid to be creative, this is the perfect palette!

Questions & Replies

Got a question? Share it with the community!

Reviews

Excellent! So prefessional looking and it tasted great. I bought a 10" tart pan just to make it with fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Thanx.

I_love2nurse in Can
GREAT RECIPE!! I have made these fruit tarts several times!, i just love them!! and they make me look like a real gourmet pastry chef! thanks for posting this Barefoot Contessa's recipe!

-Sabrina-
It was ok, I was expecting a more flavorful crust -- presentation was beautiful though

Shasha
This turned out so beautiful and was heavenly. I used strawberries, kiwi and mango. Definitely company worthy. I wouldn't change a thing. Thank you!

Liara

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Manami

Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love & beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha & my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations & a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree & wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)>  I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) Learned how to do taxes with H&R Block and worked simultaneously as a Supervisor in 2 offices for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry /> All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba & Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old & used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted & was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! That proved to be the last straw & from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> I have a beautiful large private room with a private bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic! <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself. During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) The head chef, the kitchen supervisor & the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing />

View Full Profile