Fruit tart

I found another use for the black and red currants.  This time, Pete wanted to try a fruit tart with custard so I searched for some recipes and decided to combine a few recipes to create my own.  I really love the shortcrust pastry recipe for the red currant tart I wrote about a couple of days ago.  It is so buttery but not too crumbly.  It tastes like shortbread cookies.  In fact, I might even try to make shortbread cookies with this recipe.  Anyway, I think this pastry would be perfect for the fruit tart.  All I need is a good recipe for pastry cream to spread on to the delicious pastry.

I have made pastry cream many times before but I didn't really like the flavour.  The recipe I used was too eggy for my taste.  While searching for a recipe online, I came across a recipe from the website The Joy of Baking.  I have tried a couple of their recipes and they do turn out well so I decided to give it a shot.  And the result was a thick pastry cream - very 'custard-y'.  I found it a bit too thick so I decided to lighten it up by folding in some whipped cream.  It worked and the result was a light, creamy custard that was a wonderful mix of vanilla, eggs and cream.

I topped the custard with blueberries and the currants.  I got Pete to help me arrange the berries on top and the result was a pretty, luscious looking fruit tart.  We both, well, maybe it was just me, couldn't wait to taste the tart and when we did, all the work that went into the tart was certainly worth it. The pastry was crisp and buttery.  The custard was light and flavourful.  The berries on top were the right balance of sweet and sour.  Yummy.

If you want to try making this tart, you can do the different components ahead of time.  The pastry can be kept in an air tight container for a few days while the pastry cream can last a few days in the fridge.  I made the pastry cream while the pastry was baking in the oven.  Both components are not too difficult to make.  The dough can be mixed in 10 mins and would take about 30 mins to bake.  The pastry cream needs about 10 mins from start to finish.  What might take a bit of time is arranging the fruits on top, but then again, you can just tumble everything on top for a rustic look.  Keep the tart in the fridge after assembly.  I like to serve it cold.

Fruit Tart

Pastry

220g plain flour

110g cold butter, cut into small cubes

50g icing sugar, sifted

1 egg yolk

Heat the oven to 180C.  Rub the butter into the flour (this step is like making scones).  Once the mixture resembles bread crumbs, add the icing sugar and mix well.  Add the egg yolk and slowly form a ball of dough.  I just keep pressing the mixture together with my fingers to make the ball.  Cover with some cling film and chill it in the fridge for about 30 mins.  This dough is too crumbly to roll out so I simply put the chilled pastry on to the pie pan and slowly press the dough to cover the pan evenly.  Prick the bottom with a fork, cover the surface with aluminum foil and fill the whole pan with dried beans or rice.  Bake for 15mins.  Take the pie pan out of the oven.  Get remove the beans or rice and the foil and put the pie pan back into the oven for another 10-15mins until the crust is lightly brown.  Remove from the oven and let it cool completely before assembling it.

Pastry Cream

300ml milk

3 egg yolks

50g sugar

2 tbsp plain flour

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla

In a pan over medium heat, slowly bring the milk to the boil.  While the milk is heating up, mix the yolks and the sugar in a medium bowl.  Add the flour and cornstarch.  The mixture will be thick.  When the milk is ready, slowly pour it bit by bit into the egg mixture.  Make sure you quickly whisk it so that the mixture doesn't turn into scrambled eggs.  Once you whisk in all the milk, pour the mixture back into the pan.  Cook over medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens.  You have to keep on whisking and stirring to make sure the bottom doesn't burn.  When the mixture is thick, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.  Pour into a clean bowl, cover the top with cling film to prevent a crust from forming and let it cool to room temperature.  Whisk whipping cream until soft peaks form.  Whisk the cooled pastry cream to get rid of lumps.  Gently fold in the whipped cream.

Assembly

150ml cream, lightly whipped - optional

1/2 cup apricot jam, strained to remove lumps (add a tiny bit of water, no more than 1 tbsp to make it runnier) - optional

3 cups fruit such as berries, kiwi, mango, bananas

First, use a pastry brush to coat the bottom of the pastry with the apricot jam and let it set for about 15 mins.  This will prevent the pastry from being soggy.  Then while waiting for the glaze to set, whisk the cooled pastry cream to get rid of lumps which might have been formed.  Fold in the whipped cream.  Spread the custard on the pastry.  Arrange the fruit on top.  Lightly brush the rest of the apricot jam over the fruit.  This will make the fruit look luscious and most importantly, will prevent the fruit from drying up when stored in the fridge.  Chill the fruit tart and serve it cold.

I know that looking at the numerous steps to this recipe, you might find it too daunting, but if you complete it bit by bit, you will find that it is not that difficult and the result is really worth it.  You can keep the assembly part short by leaving out the apricot glaze and the whipped cream.  I used to make fruit tart but I didn't use the glaze.  It was fine but you have to finish the whole pie very quickly and not let the fruit on top dry out.  Shrivelled strawberry and kiwi slices are so not pretty.  I didn't use to fold in whipped cream too but I find that with the whipped cream, the custard is really nice and light and not too sweet.  So although these ingredients and steps are optional, I do highly recommend them.

For my tart, I didn't have apricot jam so I used the only one available - blueberry jam.  You can see the glaze on the blueberries and at the bottom of the custard, but I much rather have a weird looking glaze than soggy pastry and shrivelled berries.  We still have one slice each tonight and they still look as good as when I made them on Monday.