My Tea Cabinet

Fruit Tart

My niece inspired this fruit tart experiment. Years ago I bought a tart pan in hopes of making a few tarts for the family, but it has been sitting underneath my cabinet collecting dust and grease until yesterday. If my niece can create a tempting tart why not her aunt. The custard of this tart was also made without milk, I used canned coconut milk instead. My son was skeptical at first, but he gave it the thumbs up and said it tasted great, not coconut flavor at all, just a nice creamy vanilla flavor. Below is the original recipe presented by Joy of Cooking and I will also give how I tweaked it. 

Pastry Cream
1 ¼ cups of milk (whole or 2%) (I used coconut milk in a can)

½ vanilla bean, or 1 tsp of vanilla extract (I used a whole vanilla bean)

3 large egg yolks (I used 4 large egg yolks)

¼ cup granulated  sugar  (I used 1/3 cup)

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 tablespoons of corn flour

1 tablespoon of liqueur (I used brandy)

In a medium sized bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together. Sift the flour and cornstarch over the egg yolk mixture and mix until you get a smooth paste.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan bring the milk and vanilla bean just to boiling. Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seed to the egg mixture. Then pour the egg mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30-60 seconds until it becomes thick. Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur. Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool to room temperature. When adding to cooled tart shell whisk the cream one last time.

Shortbread For Tarts:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons cornstarch or rice flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Lightly butter, or spray with a nonstick vegetable spray the tart pan.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together (1-2 minutes) until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour, cornstarch and salt and mix just until incorporated. If the shortbread dough is too soft to roll into balls, cover and refrigerate for about 30-60 minutes. Press the dough evenly into the tart pan and then freeze for 15 minutes before baking in 325 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool and fill with custard. (See not at bottom.)

Arrange sliced strawberries, kiwi, raspberries, or blueberries in a pleasing arrangement then apply an apricot glaze. The apricot glaze can be made by heating 1/2 cup of apricot jam with 1 tablespoon of water in a microwave until the jam melts. Strain the mixture and remove any lumps. Brush glaze over the fruit. Store tart in fridge, but bring to room temperature before serving. Best served the day the tart is assembled. But my family was still eating it on day three and the crust tasted nice a crisp, very little sogginess.

Note: If you brush the glaze over the crust before adding the custard it will help the crust from getting soggy.