Fruit Tart: Easy, Delicious and Refreshing for Summer

Here's one for tart lovers! Today we're making a fruit tart that's easy, delicious and refreshing, a must this summer, cool and uplifting with a variety of fruit.

This treat is best savoured slowly, perhaps with your favourite cup of tea, for a relaxing moment any time. A tart has two or three parts: the base, the filling and the topping. The base is a sweet pastry dough, usually baked first before adding any filling you like. For sweet tarts, the filling is often custard, chocolate ganache or almond filling. There's a small difference between fillings: pre-cooked fillings such as custard are simply spooned into the baked base and eaten, while raw fillings, usually containing eggs and flour, must be baked in the pre-baked base until cooked and set. Then comes a topping, or not, as you prefer. A fruit tart consists of the base, custard filling and sweet-tart fresh fruit. Eating all three together gives a perfectly balanced flavour and texture.

Fruit Tart Ingredients

Tart Pastry

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 50 g sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 120 g rice bran oil shortening
• 50 g cold water
• 50 g white compound chocolate

Custard Cream

• 2 gelatine sheets
• 500 ml fresh milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 125 g sugar
• 30 g cornflour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Fruit Topping

• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup fresh kiwi
• 1 cup fresh grapes
• 75 g apricot jam

How to Make a Fruit Tart

1. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse for about 15 seconds.
2. Add the rice bran oil shortening and process until the mixture forms small crumbs. Add the cold water and process until the dough comes together.
3. Roll out the pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper and line your tin. Chill for about 15 minutes.
4. Make the custard: soak the gelatine in cold water. Heat the milk. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, cornflour, salt and vanilla.
5. Pour the warm milk into the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Return to the heat and whisk until thick and fully cooked. Remove from the heat, add the softened gelatine and stir well. Set the bowl in cold water to cool, cover the surface with cling film and refrigerate.
6. Preheat the oven to 170°C with top and bottom heat and bake the tart case for 30 minutes. Let it cool, then melt the white chocolate and brush it all over the inside of the tart case.
7. Fill the tart case with the chilled custard.
8. Cut the fruit into pieces of your preferred size. Strain the apricot jam and warm it in the microwave. Toss the prepared fruit in the jam, arrange it on top of the custard and chill in the fridge for about 2 hours. Then dig in!

So what do you think of this fruit tart? It's very easy, delicious and refreshing, a must this summer.