Mini Fresh Fruit Tarts

Fresh fruit tarts - beautiful, right?  Too hard to make? - not really.  

Homemade fruit tarts look extravagant but they really aren't all that complicated.  It's three easy steps really - make the crust, make the pastry cream and then pile on the fruit.  No problem - right?   What's even better is that the crust and the cream can be made in advance and then assembled just before serving.  

There seems to be a wide range of recipes for crusts and fillings.  Everything from phyllo dough and refrigerated pie crust to whipped cream and lemon curd fulling.  I ended up pulling my recipe together from 2 different sources.  The crust came from sfgate.com and the filling recipe came from recipe.com.  As for the fruit - well, that came from Kroger.  

Mini Fresh Fruit Tarts
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons water
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar

Preheat over to 400°. Place the butter, oil, water and salt in a small saucepan and heat on high just until the butter melts and bubbles form around the edge. Set aside for a few minutes to cool.

With a wooden spoon, add 1 cup of the flour and all the sugar to the butter mixture; beat together, slowly adding more flour until the mixture forms a ball, then add more flour until the mixture doesn't stick to the sides of bowl or pan.

Press dough into mini tart pans with a removable bottoms.  Bake 10-15 minutes, or until crust is golden; watch the edges so that they do not burn.

Pastry Cream
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg yolks

​Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan.  Whisk in half and half.

Bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Let boil for 1 minute.

​Stir half of mixture into egg yolks.   

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Return mixture to saucepan and bring to a boil.  Cook and stir 2 minutes until thickened.

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​Pour mixture through a strainer into a bowl.

Set bowl in an ice bath to chill for 5 minutes.

Place plastic wrap on surface of cream and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
Cut up some fresh fruit to adorn your tarts.

Now you're ready to assemble.  Fill each tart crust with pastry cream and then pile on the fruit.

​Yes, I know, I overdid it on the pictures.  I just couldn't stop myself.  These were too pretty.  (I am so ready for summer fruit - I can taste it.)   

Ciao!

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