Fresh Fruit Tart

Apropos of my punny name, my inaugural post is about a fresh fruit tart whose crust requires blind baking.  What’s blind baking, you ask?  Essentially, it’s pre-baking a pie or tart crust.  This is an important step to take when the crust will get soggy by the time the filling in the pie/tart is cooked through or when the filling doesn’t require baking at all, which is the case for this particular recipe.

So what’s in a fruit tart besides fruit?  The tart pastry, also known as pâte sucrée, or “sweet dough” in French, is shortbread-like in texture–lightly sweet, richly delicate, and just crumbly enough to make you want to lick your finger and use it to pick up every last crumb (though I recommend you do not do this in front of, say, friends of your horrified parents.  Trust.)  The dough is mixed, chilled, rolled and gently fitted into a tart pan with a removable bottom, like this one:

Side note:  stay away from non-stick bakeware ; the first time you cut into your tart, you’ll damage the coating and sooner or later, flecks of the non-stick material will make their way into your food.  Also, most tart/quiche crusts contain enough fat to keep the pastry from sticking to the pan anyway, making a non-stick surface redundant.

Once it’s spent some additional time in the freezer, the crust gets covered with aluminum foil and metal or ceramic pie weights are piled on top.  I know there are many recipes out there that suggest using dried beans or rice instead, and you can use them if you really don’t want to buy pie weights; I find these substitutes don’t transfer heat as well as the real deal, and rice/beans might make your crust (and house) smell like burned rice/beans if you re-use them too many times.

Look at that gorgeous crust!

Once your pâte sucrée is blind-baked to golden perfection, it’s cooled completely and filled with crème pâtissière (vanilla pastry cream).  I’m very particular about my pastry cream; I expect it to be creamy, silky, redolent of vanilla, and be thick enough to leave a trail when you drag a wooden spoon along the bottom of the saucepan but not so thick that it clings desperately to the spoon in a rubbery clump.  In short, it should taste like heaven and be good enough to eat by itself.  It’s exactly what I got; I wish I’d remembered to take a picture of the crème pâtissière because it was glorious.

After I filled the crust with my luscious pastry cream, I topped it with strawberries, blueberries, and sliced kiwi, and gently brushed on the glaze.

One of the things I love most about this tart is its lovely presentation and the relative ease with which it’s prepared; each component can be made a couple of days ahead of time.   However, I won’t lie, this is not the kind of thing you can whip up in just a few minutes; you’ll need several hours.  I strongly recommend making the pastry cream first because it needs to chill for at least three hours.  Another downside is that this tart is best consumed within 30-60 minutes of putting it together.  So if you’re planning to bring my fresh fruit tart to your next gathering, put the pastry cream into a resealable bag, the berries in another, and the glaze in yet another bag or a small plastic container, and assemble the tart at the venue.

The Blind Baker’s Fresh Fruit Tart

Crème Pâtissière
1/2     cup light cream
1 1/2    cups half-and-half
1/2    cup granulated sugar
Pinch table salt
5    large egg yolks (remove the egg white proteins called chalazae with your fingers)
3    tablespoons cornstarch
4    tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 4 pieces
2    teaspoons vanilla extract

Pâte Sucrée
1    large egg yolk
1    tablespoon heavy cream
1    teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4    cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3    cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4    teaspoon table salt
8    tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), very cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Fruit and Glaze
Your choice of fruit, organic if possible (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, sliced ripe peaches, strawberries, mangoes, whatever rocks your world)
1/2    cup apple (this is best for lighter-colored fruits like peaches), seedless raspberry, or red currant jelly

For the Crème Pâtissière:
1. Heat light cream and half-and-half, 6 tablespoons sugar, and salt in 2-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring to dissolve sugar.
2. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in medium bowl until thoroughly combined.  Whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and whisk until sugar has begun to dissolve and mixture is creamy, about 15 seconds.  Whisk in cornstarch until combined and mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 30 seconds.
3. When light cream mixture reaches full simmer, gradually whisk a small amount of it into yolk mixture to raise the temperature of the yolks and prevent curdling.  Slowly whisk the remaining hot cream mixture into egg yolks.  Return mixture to saucepan, scraping bowl with spatula; return to simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until a few bubbles burst on surface and mixture is thickened and glossy, about 30 seconds.  Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla.  Transfer mixture to medium bowl, press plastic wrap directly on surface, and refrigerate until cold and set, at least 4 hours or up to 48 hours.

For the Pâte Sucrée:
4.  While pastry cream is chilling, whisk together yolk, cream, and vanilla in small bowl; set aside.  Pulse to combine flour, sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade.  Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about fifteen 1-second pulses.  While the food processor is running, add egg mixture and process until dough just comes together, about 25 seconds.  Turn dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and press into 6-inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 48 hours.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable).  Unwrap and roll out between lightly floured large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to 13-inch round. (If dough is soft and sticky, slip onto baking sheet and refrigerate until workable, 20 to 30 minutes.)  Transfer dough to tart pan by rolling dough loosely around rolling pin and unrolling over 9- to 9 1/2-inch tart pan with removable bottom.  Working around circumference of pan, ease dough into pan corners by gently lifting dough with one hand while pressing dough into corners with other hand.  Press dough into fluted sides of pan. (If some edges are too thin, reinforce sides by folding excess dough back on itself.)  Run rolling pin over top of tart pan to remove excess dough.  Set dough-lined tart pan on large plate and freeze 30 minutes (can be sealed in gallon-sized zipper-lock plastic bag and frozen up to 1 month).
6. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees.  Set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet, press 12-inch square of foil inside frozen tart shell and over edges and fill with metal or ceramic pie weights. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating halfway through baking time.  Remove from oven and carefully remove foil and weights by gathering edges of foil and pulling up and out. Continue to bake until deep golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes longer.  Set baking sheet with tart shell on wire rack to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Assembly:
7. When tart shell is completely cool, spread cold pastry cream over bottom, using offset spatula or large spoon.  Arrange fruit on top of pastry cream.
8. Bring jelly to boil in small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to smooth out lumps.  When completely melted, dab the jelly onto fruit with a pastry brush.  Remove outer metal ring of tart pan, slide thin metal spatula between bottom of crust and tart pan bottom to release, then slip tart onto cardboard round or serving platter; serve.