Summer Fruit Tart

Now that August is just about over, I'll go ahead and post my first entry of the month. I'd like to say that my posting consistency will improve once the fall comes along, but I can't make any promises. Rather than blogging I've been spending my time doing way more important things, like watching TV. It was the TV however that gave me inspiration for this post, so I guess it was a rather important activity after all. While Kyle and I were watching this week's episode of "Masterchef" we watched the creation of fresh fruit tarts during a head to head elimination challenge between contestants. (Kyle is my boyfriend for any who may be reading and wondering who he might be.) Kyle mentioned that he would like to try one of those fruit tarts some time, so I took that as an opportunity to challenge myself...and maybe earn a few brownie points in the process. Plus, I needed something to blog about again anyway. I wanted to find the most authentic and homemade version of the fruit tart I could. I looked through many recipes, sifting through "shortcut crust" and "vanilla pudding filling" and finally landed on a Fresh Fruit Tart recipe from Oprah's website. The shell is a legitimate pastry crust and the filling is a smooth homemade custard, or pastry cream. I had my work cut out for myself.

I started with the crust because it was going to need to chill for about an hour while I worked on the cream. One of the first instructions told me to use a food processor to cut the butter and cold water into the dry ingredients. Since I don't own a food processor, I listened to my semi-pro baker little sister who told me to use a blender instead. I wasn't sure if that was a great idea at the time, and in retrospect I'm positive that wasn't the best idea but I made it work. After the dough chilled I ended up with a pretty crumbly mess on my hands, in which I had to perform some Texas Chainsaw Massacre-like surgery on it. I pieced it together in the pan and ended up with a semi-descent looking crust by the time it was ready to go in the oven. The first 5 minutes of baking were supposed to include pie weights to ensure that the crust stayed in place. I used poor man's pie weights, which were dry kidney beans on top of parchment paper and that worked just find. After removing the beans, I stuck it back in for 20 minutes until I had a nice golden crust that didn't glorify my patch-work as much as I was afraid of.

Cooling inside the pan

While the crust was cooling, I started to work on my pastry cream. This is the second time now that I've made a pastry cream for the sake of my blog. I think that this time it turned out better, as I experienced more scorching last time. I also used a different recipe that I will probably stick to from here on out (omitting the cognac). I was supposed to strain it through a sieve, but I don't have one of those and there weren't any lumps that I could see so I put it straight in the fridge to cool.

Filled crust, still in the pan

All of the recipes that I read regarding fruit tarts showed the crust removed from the pan before they start filling it and assembling the fruit. While consulting my mom, the expert on most things food, she told me to leave it in the pan during the filling process. Since mom usually always knows best, that's what I did. I was afraid it was going to be too heavy and create a problem for me removing it from the pan after it was complete, but it didn't. Thanks mom.

Fully assembled, still in the pan

Here it is fully assembled. I chose to use strawberries, peaches, kiwis and blueberries because I wanted a good contrast between the colors. And since I was making this for Kyle in the first place, I chose fruits that I knew he liked. Besides blueberries, but that's why I put those in the middle, so he could avoid them if he wanted. Overall, I think that it turned out pretty well. After the crust mishap in the beginning I wasn't sure which direction this fruit tart was headed, but I can say that I was pretty proud of the outcome. For the record, Kyle ate almost the entire thing in one sitting, and brownie points were received. In the words of Gordon Ramsay, this was "the most stunning fruit tart!"