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Last Modified: 02/03/08
First Published: 01/24/08
Views: 10459 | | |
| Views: 10459 |
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This fresh fruit tart makes a remarkably elegant dessert. A short-bread like crust is filled with a lush, creamy vanilla pastry cream and topped with sliced, sweet fruit. The balance between crust, cream and fresh fruit is perfect and so easy to like. While it looks like quite a complicated dish, it’s actually really simple. The pastry cream is fast to make and as long as you follow the directions, it will come out great. The only slightly tricky part is tempering the eggs, but even that is not much of a process. This recipe is an adaptation from America’s Test Kitchen’s fruit tart, and therefore tested many times. The result is everything you want from a fine tart, however it’s very easy to put together. Another fun aspect is decoration as you can carefully place the fruits in a pretty pattern which makes for a nice presentation. |
Servings: 8
Total Cost: $9.06
Cost Per Serving: $1.13
Total Calories: 3,847
Calories/Serving: 481 | 8-10 servings
Pastry Cream:
2 cups half-and-half
½ cup sugar
pinch salt
5 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons butter, cut into ½ inch pieces, chilled
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 recipe Tart Crust, baked and cooled
Fruit:
3 kiwis
2 cups fruit (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries) (thawed, frozen fruit works fine)
Method:
1. In a medium saucepan, stir together the half-and-half, 6 tablespoons sugar and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and stir occasionally.
sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cornstarch and the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
3. When the cream mixture is simmering, start to temper the eggs by adding one cup of the hot liquid into the egg mixture. Then slowly whisk in the tempered egg mixture into the hot cream (you want to make sure that the cream mixture is hot enough at this stage in order to produce a nice and thick cream). Whisk constantly, as the mixture will begin to thicken immediately and leave on the heat for about 30 seconds. Off the heat, whisk in the cold butter and the vanilla. Pour onto pan, lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly over the sauce and refrigerate until cold – about 3 hours.
4. Once the mixture is cold, spread it over the cold, baked pastry sheet and make sure it’s smooth and even. In a decorative fashion, organize sliced kiwi and the strawberries, raspberries and blueberries on top of the cream.
5. You can either serve this pie right away or let it set up in the fridge for an hour or more. To serve, remove the outer metal ring of the tart pan and slide the tart on a serving plate or a cutting board.
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