Fruit Tart

Fruit Tart!

In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour and salt. Set aside.

Whisk butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy

Gradually add the beaten egg, beating just until incorporated. Don’t over mix or the butter will separate and lighten in color.

Add flour mixture all at once and mix just until it forms a ball. Don’t overwork or pastry will be hard when baked.

Flatten dough into disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm.

Grease your tart pan

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together.

Set aside egg mixture. Split a vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds.

In an large saucepan combine milk and vanilla until the begin to boil. This is infusing the milk with the flavor of the vanilla. mm mm mm.

It takes a while to boil, so you have time for kitty photos!

When it is done boiling, remove from from heat, and slowly pour the egg mixture into the infused milk. like so..

Then pour that mixture back into the bowl, and stir it like you are a humming bird on uppers. (Really fast)

Then put it back onto the stove. The reason for all of this pouring back and fourth is so the mix is incorporated without making scrambled eggs.

Keep stirring until it becomes really thick like this…

You’ll be so happy that part is over, you will pose for a picture.

Cover immediately with plastic wrap so a gross film doest form over the cream. Now you can put it in the fridge until it’s nice and cool.

Swap the pastry cream for the dough in the fridge, and flour a board for rolling. Start to roll out making sure it’s all pretty even in thickness.

I took the bottom of the tart pan and guesstimated the size of the sides, then cut it to size with a pizza roller.

Take your nice flat disc of dough, and roll it onto the tart pan. Once it is in, form it to the sides. I’m not sure if there is a specific way to do this, I figure the idea of transferring dough into a pan, then forming it to that pan is an easy idea, however I had to do it three times until i got it the way i liked it. Just try your best.

Once it kind of looks like this, poke holes in it so it doesn’t explode in the over. (that would really suck)

Before you put it into a 400* 0ven, cover it with foil. (It will get too brown) A normal baker would have pie weights. I do not, so I used some clean, shiny rocks that are normally used to make candles look more outdoors-ey  in home decor!

Put it in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until its pretty and golden. While it’s in the oven, boil the preserves and the water then remove from heat (easy)

Once the are both done, cool the crust, and remove from pan. Set on a cooling rack. Glaze the bottom of the tart. This is not for taste, it’s so the pastry cream doesn’t go through the tart. I’m not even sure if that’s possible, but do it in order to humor the people who wrote “the joy of baking”.

Cut all of the fruit in thin and even slices. Make sure everything is washed and picture perfect. The fruit is the star of the show.

By the grace of god, you have made it this far, and now it is finally time to assemble the tart.

If you are prepared you will have pastry bags and heads. I used rocks instead of pie weights, so I clearly do not have pastry bags, and heads. FEAR NOT! Use a ziplock bag, and fill it with the pastry cream.

Cut the tip of the bag, and pipe the cream into the shell in a big creamy swirl like this…

Smooth out your lines.

You can place the fruit wherever you want. I had no plan with the fruit, the only advice i have is to make sure you get each type of fruit on each slice.

Now you can brush the preserves on top. This is so the fruit is extra sweet. It also adds a nice shine to everything.

And there you have it! Enjoy your tart, and make someone else do the dishes! (Use fruit tart bribery)

It can be stored in the fridge for four days.