The perfect summer dessert, this fruit tart is made with a sweet buttery crust filled with pastry cream, or crema pasticcera, and topped with fresh, seasonal fruit. So much easier to make than you think!
This is the perfect dessert to enjoy during the summer months. Fruit tarts are refreshing, filled with a lemon infused pastry cream and topped with whichever fruit is in season in your area.
Here's why you should try making homemade fruit tart!
This crostata di frutta, as it is called in Italian, can be made in just a few simple steps:
- Prepare the pastry cream.
- Bake the tart shell: the only step that requires baking.
- Top with fresh seasonal fruit of your choice. This may include mixed berries; kiwi; pineapple; peaches; plums and mango.
- The pastry cream and tart shell may be prepared up to 3 days ahead and the tart assembled the day you serve it.
I guarantee that this showstopper dessert will impress all!
List of Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Salt
- Baking Powder
- Butter: unsalted
- Eggs
- Milk: preferably whole milk
- Vanilla extract
- Lemon peel
- Fresh fruit of your choice: I used strawberries; blueberries and raspberries
The following are step by step instructions with images to guide you through this recipe. Please scroll to the end of this post for the detailed printable recipe card.
Step by Step Instructions
Prepare the pastry cream
- Heat milk along with a strip of lemon.
- Whisk eggs, flour and sugar until smooth.
- Temper the egg mixture by whisking in half of the heated milk.
- Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and whish constantly, over medium high heat until thickened. Remove the lemon strip.
- Pour into a bowl, stir in vanilla extract and cover with a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming on the cream.
- Refrigerate until ready to use.
Prepare the pastry
- Place flour; sugar; baking powder and a pinch of salt in the bowl of your food processor and combine.
- Add cubed butter and pulse about 10-12 times until the butter has broken down and the mixture is crumbly.
- With the motor running on low speed, pour the beaten egg through the feeder and process until a dough forms and wraps itself around the blade. This will take about 30 seconds.
- Transfer to a sheet of plastic wrap and shape into a disc. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Roll the dough into roughly a 12 inch diameter circle of about ¼ inch thickness.
- Wrap the dough around the rolling pin and carefully unroll it onto a 9-inch tart pan.
- Be sure to completely cover the base of the pan with. Use the rolling pin to cut the excess dough hanging over the tart pan.
- Prick the dough with a fork and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.
- Let cool completely.
Assemble the tart
- Wash your fruit and cut into pieces, if desired. I halved my strawberries as I prefer larger chunks of fruit in my tart.
- Spread the pastry cream in the prepared tart base.
- Arrange the fruit over the pastry cream as desired.
- Chill for 2 hours prior to serving.
Recipe Notes
-Instead of pastry cream the tart may be filled with biancomangiare, a Sicilian cream made without eggs and thickened with cornstarch.
-Make the pastry cream with almond milk instead of cow's milk.
-Top with fresh seasonal fruit of your choice such as berries; kiwi; pineapple; mango; peaches or plums.
-Brush the fruit with a glaze made with apricot jam for extra shine. Melt ¼ cup of jam in a saucepan. Brush the fruit with the jam.
-Whole fruit such as blueberries or raspberries do not release much moisture.
-Be sure to rinse the fruit ahead and let dry on a paper towel lined tray to absorb excess water.
-If using sliced fruit, place the fruit (cut side down) on a paper towel to absorb excess moisture before arranging on the tart.
This tart is best enjoyed the day it is made. However, leftovers will keep well refrigerated for up to 3 days.
If you don’t have a food processor the dough can be easily prepared by hand. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add the cubed butter and use your fingers, or a pastry cutter if you have one, to cut the butter into the flour until it resembles a crumbly mixture. Add the beaten egg and shape into a dough. Proceed as outlined above.
-The tart is best assembled the day it is served.
-However both the tart shell and pastry cream may be prepared, and kept refrigerated, up to 3 days ahead.
Did you try this recipe?
Let me know how much you enjoyed it by rating it in the recipe card below!
*****
Check out more Italian desserts with pastry cream!
- Cannoli with Pastry Cream Filling
- Bomboloni with Pistachio Custard Filled Doughnuts
- Pineapple Layer Cake with Pastry Cream
- Genovesi Ericine
Ingredients
For the tart shell
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt
- ½ cup butter chilled, cut into cubes
- 1 large egg
For the pastry cream
- 2 cups milk preferably whole milk
- strip lemon peel
- 4 large egg yolks
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fruit topping
- 2 cups strawberries (approximately) halved
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1 cup raspberries
Instructions
Prepare the pastry cream
- Heat milk along with the strip of lemon peel in a medium sized saucepan. Do not bring to a boil.
- Whisk together eggs, flour and sugar in a bowl until smooth.
- Temper the egg mixture by whisking in half of the heated milk. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and whisk constantly, over medium high heat, until thickened. Remove and discard the lemon strip.
- Pour into a bowl, stir in vanilla extract and cover with a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming on the cream. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Prepare the tart shell
- Place flour; sugar; baking powder and a pinch of salt in the bowl of your food processor and combine.
- Add cubed butter and pulse about 10-12 times until the butter has broken down and the mixture is crumbly.
- Lightly beat the egg in a small bowl. With the motor running on low speed, pour the beaten egg through the feeder and process until a dough forms and wraps itself around the blade.This will take about 30 seconds.
- Transfer onto a sheet of plastic wrap and shape into a disc. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll the dough into roughly a 12 inch diameter circle of about ¼ inch thickness.
- Wrap the dough around the rolling pin and carefully unroll it onto a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom.
- Be sure to completely cover the base of the pan with the dough. Use the rolling pin to cut the excess dough hanging over the tart pan.
- Prick the dough with a fork and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden. Let cool completely.
To assemble the fruit tart
- Wash your fruit and cut into pieces, if desired. I halved my strawberries as I prefer larger chunks of fruit in my tart.
- Spread the pastry cream in the prepared tart shell.
- Arrange the fruit over the pastry cream as desired. Chill for 2 hours prior to serving.
Notes
-Make the pastry cream with almond milk instead of cow's milk.
-Top with fresh seasonal fruit of your choice such as berries; kiwi; pineapple; mango; peaches or plums.
-Brush the fruit with a glaze made with apricot jam for extra shine. Melt ¼ cup of jam in a saucepan. Brush the fruit with jam. How can I prevent moisture from the fruit from seeping onto the pastry cream? -Whole fruit such as blueberries or raspberries will not release much moisture.
-Be sure to rinse the fruit ahead and let dry on a paper towel lined tray to absorb excess water.
-If using sliced fruit, place the fruit (cut side down) on a paper towel to absorb excess moisture before arranging on the tart. Can fruit tart be prepared ahead? -The tart is best assembled the day it is served.
-However both the tart shell and pastry cream may be prepared, and kept refrigerated, up to 3 days ahead. Can the dough be prepared without a food processor? If you don’t have a food processor the dough can be easily prepared by hand. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add the cubed butter and use your fingers, or a pastry cutter if you have one, to cut the butter into the flour until it resembles a crumbly mixture. Add the beaten egg and shape into a dough. Proceed as outlined above. Storage This tart is best enjoyed the day it is made. However, leftovers will keep well refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Nadia Fazio
My family enoys this tart for birthdays, it was such a thrill to make it myself instead of purchasing it. Much easier to prepare than I thought and worthwhile!