Fresh Fruit Tart

My goal of 5 recipes a week was accomplished almost solely from this recipe. I tallied four recipes in the creation of this fresh fruit tart. The creation consisted of a Berry Sauce, Pastry Cream, fresh fruit, and Pate Sucre.




Berry Sauce-
The recipe called for a berry liquor and I spent another bit of time in the liquor store for baking supplies...I have been to three different places so as to not look like an alcoholic (haha, just kidding it happened to depend on where I was in the Tri-cities). I pureed some fresh raspberries, sugar and berry liquor until it thickened and then I had to strin it into a bowl. At first, just the thin liquid came through the strainer and I thought that the berry sauce had failed, but I slowly used a spoon on the bottom of the strainer and the thick sauce began to emerge. The berry seeds soon clogged the strainer but I got enough sauce for the recipe that I gave up on the strainer and dumped the seeds. I put it in the fridge and moved on to the Pastry Cream.


Pastry cream-
When I think of pastry cream, I think of something with a consistancy of pudding. This was a vanilla bean pastry cream that set up faster than I was anticipating. I was doing other things in the kitchen and realized by cream mixture was already think and I started whisking in an attempt to not burn the bottom. I think I caught it just in time, but the mixtures was probably a bit overdone. I put it in the fridge to cool and started working on my crust pate sucre.

The Crust-
I have had trouble in the past with dough of all kinds. I will be a pro by the time I finish this book!! The Pate Sucre is a sweeter crust and everything went beautifully until I had to roll it out. The book said to make an 11" circle, but as you can see a circle is not what I managed. Luckily this was going in a tart pan and nobody could see where I patched in pieces here and there.


I used red respberries, golden raspberryies, blackberries, and blueberries on top of the pastry cream (under the berry sauce). My initial thought was to drizzle the berry sauce in a fun pattern over the berries, but the first attempt resulted in less than desireable results so I decided to cover the whole tart...which covered my hard work on the berries, but by the time I served the tart the berry sauce settled and revealed the berry pattern. It was delicious even though I typically do not eat any of the berries that were on top of the tart.

I do love my Pampered Chef Tart Pan! Everything I bake seems to slide right out of the pan.

I had some leftover crust so I decided to make a few little tarts as well. My little tart cups worked awesome. I sprayed them and then stuffed in the crust and baked them until they were almost golden. I put the remaining Pastry Cream in the bottom of the cups, drizzled a little berry sauce and topped it with blueberryies and whipcream...a little bit of goodness in one bite!!