My family alway buys a fruit tart from Whole Foods for a birthday. I'd like to explore making it myself and am looking for recipees guidance and suggestions. Any advice you can give is appreciated. I have 2 weeks till my son's birthday so I can even make one as a test this weekend.


Thanks


Mark

Are you speaking of the kind with a layer of pastry cream, then fruit, then a glaze?

Exactly. I found a few recipes but have no experience on which one is best.

Make the crust with a simple pâte sucrée and bake.
Fill with a vanilla pastry cream.
Top with sliced fruit and some berries.
You don't have to worry about glazing unless you plan on having it sit for a bit. If you do want to glaze buy a small jar of apple jelly from Giant and heat in a pan (adding a bit of water, if needed) to get a thin consistency and then brush over the tart. Let cool.

I can get you specific recipes when I get home if nobody else posts them.

I don't use a recipe, per se, but this is a good one. Blind bake pâte sucrée in a tart pan. Crust recipe here. Fill with pastry cream. Use the combination of fruit that you prefer. I skip the glaze - just don't think it add much except shininess - unless I am having company that I want to impress.

Here's a recipe from Martha's site for plain pastry cream if you don't want the buttermilk tang:

Crème Pâtissière (Pastry Cream):
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Combine milk, heavy cream, and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan. Set pan over medium heat, and bring the milk mixture just to a boil. Remove the pan from heat, cover, and let mixture steep 10 to 12 minutes. Remove and discard vanilla bean.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour, and continue whisking egg mixture until smooth.

Slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk this new mixture until it is completely smooth and free of lumps.

Return new mixture to pan, and place over medium heat. Bring mixture to a boil, whisking constantly; cook 2 minutes more.

Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl. Lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Well, I used to buy this fantastic mix (yes, I know) from Oetker. I don't know if they still make it anymore, but I think they still sell a packet glaze (gelatin-like). I've seen it at Rodman's. As for pastry cream... well that's another story.

Buttermilk pastry cream sound interesting. Have you ever made this? I wonder how much tang it gives the final product.

You can definitely taste the difference, especially with a high quality buttermilk like Trickling Springs. Great with a blueberry tart.

Sounds good and blueberry season is still months away.

I'm with Heather--I never bother with glaze unless I REALLY want to impress somebody. To each their own. Don't be frightened by pate sucree. It's basically sugar cookie dough and really can't be overworked or otherwise ruined. And, the scraps taste delicious and the dough can even be eaten raw when stored frozen (or, so I've been told ). I think the toughest thing might be to get good fruit at this time of year. Choose something that isn't TOO juicy (too juice may make for liquidy mess. You can also play with flavoring the pastry cream with something that will accent the fruit you choose (e.g. the idea of the buttermilk complementing the blueberries in the tart Heather referenced). If you were doing something tropical in terms of fruit, you might be able to infuse the pastry cream with some ginger. Depends on how adventurous you are and how much you want to play with it.

Thanks. I'll be making two next Friday night. Fruit is going to depend on what whole foods or Harris Teeter has. I'd prefer berries such as Strawberries and Blueberries.

I've made berry tart recipes from both Fannie Farmer Baking Book and The New Basics Cookbook (which had cream cheese in the crust), and they both came out well. I can't remember if I used the glaze, though. I've got blackberries in my freezer from the summer that I should really use, so I've been thinking about tarts lately myself.

There are some recipes accompanying this article, I think. LA Times article