"This Tart Was Berry Well Received!"
July 16, 2017
“This tart was berry well received!”
This tart was berry well received! Three views of it: from above, a fluted shell overflowing with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and cherries, some with their stems on; from the side, a tall, evenly golden crust with crisp flutes; and a close-up of the fruit.
The side view is the one a pastry chef would look at first. The shell held its height with no slumping, and it's baked to an even biscuit color all the way down, which comes from chilling the lined tin well and blind baking with weights. I piled the fruit naturally instead of arranging it in rings, a style that suits a summer tart.
This article is written in Corey’s voice for this tribute site, based on his captions and blog. His own words are the quotes above.
Fresh Fruit Tart
The classic French tarte aux fruits: a crisp sweet pastry shell filled with vanilla pastry cream and covered in glazed fresh fruit. It is a fixture of pâtisserie windows across France, and every component is a foundation recipe of the French pastry kitchen. The same recipe makes one large tart or a set of individual tartlets.
Ingredients
Pâte sucrée
- 250 g all-purpose flour (2 cups)
- 30 g almond flour (1/3 cup)
- 95 g powdered sugar (3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp)
- 2 g fine salt (1/3 tsp)
- 150 g unsalted butter, soft but cool (10 1/2 tbsp)
- 50 g egg (1 large)
Vanilla pastry cream
- 500 g whole milk (2 cups plus 1 tbsp)
- 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
- 120 g egg yolks (6 large)
- 100 g granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
- 40 g cornstarch (1/3 cup)
- 40 g unsalted butter, cubed (3 tbsp)
Fruit and glaze
- 600 g mixed fresh fruit: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, kiwi, mango (about 4 cups)
- 100 g apricot jam or neutral glaze (1/3 cup)
- 15 g water (1 tbsp)
- 30 g white chocolate or cocoa butter, melted, to seal the shell (optional)
Method
- Make the dough. Beat the butter, powdered sugar and salt until smooth but not fluffy, mix in the almond flour and egg, then add the flour and mix only until the dough comes together. Flatten into a disk, wrap and chill at least 2 hours.
- Roll the dough to 3 mm (1/8 inch) between sheets of parchment. Line a 9-inch (23 cm) tart ring or tartlet rings, pressing the dough into the corners without stretching it, trim the rim and chill 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line the shell with parchment and pie weights and bake 15 minutes, lift out the weights and bake 8-12 minutes more until evenly golden. Cool completely.
- For the pastry cream, bring the milk and vanilla to a simmer. Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornstarch until smooth, then whisk in the hot milk a little at a time.
- Return the mixture to the pan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens and boils. Keep it at a boil for a full minute to cook out the starch, then whisk in the butter off the heat.
- Spread the cream in a shallow dish, press plastic wrap directly on the surface and chill until cold, at least 2 hours. Whisk until smooth before using.
- Brush the inside of the cooled shell with a thin coat of melted white chocolate if the tart must hold for more than a few hours. Fill with pastry cream to just below the rim and level it.
- Arrange the fruit tightly, working from the outside edge toward the centre and overlapping cut fruit so no cream shows.
- Warm the jam with the water until fluid, strain it, and dab it over the fruit with a soft brush. Chill 30 minutes and serve the same day.
Chef’s notes
- A shell that shrinks was stretched during lining or not rested long enough. Ease the dough into the corners and chill it firm before baking.
- Pastry cream that tastes starchy or turns runny after a day was not boiled long enough. It must bubble for a full minute, which also deactivates the yolk enzyme that breaks down starch.
- Dry the fruit thoroughly after washing. Wet berries weep into the cream and dull the glaze.
- Glaze should be warm and fluid, not hot. Hot glaze cooks the surface of the berries and makes them slump.
Drawn from the methods of
- Ferrandi Paris, French Pâtisserie (2017)
- Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel, Bouchon Bakery (2012)
- Bo Friberg, The Professional Pastry Chef (2002)
Corey has not published his own formula for this piece. This reference recipe is compiled from the published methods of the chefs and bakers listed above, written in our own words.
