Homemade Fresh Fruit Tarts

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!
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>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! <br /><br />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? <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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)> </p>
<p>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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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) <br /><br />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! <br /><br />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 /></p>
<p>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.<br /><br />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! :) <br /><br />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 /><br /><br />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 /></p>
<p>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 /><br /><br /></p>