French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

What a truely wonderful dessert this is! Here, we have a classic French pastry dessert, made up of a meltingly crisp buttery sweet French pastry, also known as pâte sablée.

What is Sweet French Pastry or pâte sablée

From the French pâte meaning dough and sabler, meaning “to sand,” pâte sablée has a buttery-sweet melt-in-the-mouth texture. This delicious sweet pastry dough is a common in French pastries, and can also be referred to as 'sand' pastry.

Pâte sablée dough is made by creaming butter, powdered sugar, and egg together before combining the dry ingredients. It's one of the easiest pastry recipes I use, and most definitely one you should keep!

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What is French Fruit Tart made of?

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

This fruit tart is made up of 5 separate elements. Don't be overwhelmed by all of them! Some of the elements take just minutes to make, and the longest time for this recipe is chilling the dough.

  1. The tart shell
  2. Fruit jam
  3. Pastry cream
  4. Fresh fruit
  5. Clear glaze (nappage)

1. The pastry

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

You need to chill it twice, first when you've made the dough, and second when you've rolled it out and put it in the tart case. 20 minutes each time. It's important not to skip the chill times stated because this is what will give you the most amazing tart shell, and when it's baking, you won't get any shrinkage.

I always make the tart shell and pastry cream the day before. Simple because everything needs to be cold when you come to assemble the tart.

The pastry shell will keep in an air-tight container for at least 1 week and still be crisp. I will usually make 2 tart shells and keep one for another time. So I know it's still perfect after 1 week. Any longer and I can't say.

2. Fruit jam

We've used a strawberry jelly. This is brushed over the cooked tart shell before adding the pastry cream to give it a seal and keep the base from going soggy. Try and use a smooth or jelly type jam as you don't want chunks of jam fruit in the tart.

3. The pastry cream

The pastry cream (Creme Patissiere) is made up of egg yolks, milk, a thickening agent, and vanilla. It's a luxurious, creamy mixture that sits inside the tart case and will be what the fruit ultimately is arranged on. It's delicious!

The trick to a silky smooth pastry cream is to make sure you stir whilst on the heat, and don't stop stirring until it's thickened! Pass it through a sieve afterward to make sure it's as smooth as can be and the addition of butter when it's cooled for 5 minutes will give it an absolutely wonderful shine and added richness.

4. Fresh fruit

You can be as creative as you like here! As you can see, we've gone for strawberries, kiwi fruit, blackberries, blueberries and mandarins. You can go tropical and add pineapple, bananas, oranges etc.

As it's summer time, we've used really lovely sweet juicy berries and the colors are beautiful! Be as creative as you like.

5. The glaze

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

The glaze is made up of a vegan powder known as arrowroot. You can usually buy it in sachets in the baking section. It's a plant-based thickening agent and is tasteless and colorless.

So when making a glaze such as this, you just want it to give a beautiful shine and also coat the fruits to keep them fresh and vibrant.

When the glaze sets in the fridge (takes just a few minutes), it has a texture like fine jelly. It's a very thin layer to coat the top.

You can leave it out, but I do think it looks stunning and makes a difference the to end result. We've mixed the arrowroot with some cranberry juice to give it a translucent red color. You can use apple juice, or orange juice if you prefer.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

Ingredients

For the vanilla sablé tart shell:

Total Time To Make: 10 minutes plus 40 minutes chilling plus 25 minutes baking

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, French pastry ingredients

80 grams (1⁄2 cup + 2 tablespoons) confectioners’ sugar
130 grams (9 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
190 grams (1 1⁄2 cups) all-purpose flour
50 grams (1⁄3 cup + 1 tablespoons) cornstarch
1⁄2 teaspoon salt

The base

2 tablespoons Strawberry jelly

Creme Patissiere (pastry cream)

Total Time to make: 10 minutes

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, pastry cream ingredients
Note: this photo shows half the quantity as I also made a smaller tart!

8 egg yolks
120g (⅔ cup) regular sugar
6 & ½ tablespoons all purpose plain flour
4 tsp cornflour
560 ml(19 fl oz) milk
200g (7 oz) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Fresh Fruit Topping

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, fruit ingredients prepared

1 lb of fresh mixed berries

The Glaze

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, glaze ingredients

Ground Arrowroot Sachet (1 tbsp)
225 ml (8 fl oz) Cranberry Juice

Equipment

10 inch perforated tart pan (with a loose bottom)
Parchment paper
Plastic Wrap
Bowl and whisk
Saucepan

Instructions

Make the sweet pastry

  1. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the confectioners’ sugar and butter for 30 seconds on low speed.
French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, French Pastry creaming method

2. Add the egg, and mix on medium speed until evenly combined.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, French Pastry creaming method, adding egg

3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add to the mixer on low speed, and combine until there are no more dry patches.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, French pastry adding dry ingredients

4. Finish mixing the dough by hand to ensure it is not over-mixed.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, bringing dough together

The dough should be smooth and have the consistency of cookie dough.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, shape dough on worktop

5. Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper on your work surface and sandwich it with another sheet of parchment paper, flattening it into a 1-inch thick disk.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, dough inbetween parchment

6. Transfer the dough disk to a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, around 20 minutes.

7. Generously dust flour on the work surface and rub onto a rolling pin. Remove the dough from the paper and and transfer it to your work surface. Roll the dough out into a circle about 1⁄8 inch (3mm) thick.

To check you have rolled the dough large enough for your tart tin, pop it over the top of the dough to see the size

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, roll out dough

8. Using your rolling pin, carefully transfer the rolled out dough to your tart tin, being careful not to break it. Drape it over the sides and then lift the pastry gently into the tin.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, transfer rolled dough to tart pan

9. Carefully go around the inside edging of the tin, gently pushing the dough inside. If you do happen to break or tear the pastry, use a little overhang and patch it up, making sure you don't have any cracks at all. Finally trim off any excess dough from the edge. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up.

You really need to make sure you allow the pastry to chill first so it doesn’t shrink during baking.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, trim sides

10. While the tart shell is chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) for conventional or 325°F (160°C) for convection.

11. Bake the tart on the center rack for 20 - 25 minutes, until it’s a light golden brown.

This tart dough won’t rise very much, so you don’t need to blind-bake the tart shell in advance.

12. When ready, remove the tart shell by placing a cup or glass underneath and carefully sliding the outside tart ring in a downwards position. if you think some of the pastry is stuck to the sides, gently loosen using a small knife.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, how to remove the pan ring

13. Transfer to a cooling rack and remove the base of the tart tin. Allow the tart case to completely cool at room temperature.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, transfer to cooling rack

Make the Creme Patissiere (Pastry Cream)

  1. Using a hand whisk, beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and slightly thickened.
French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, pastry cream, whisk sugar and eggs


2. Whisk in the flours.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, add dry ingredients to egg mixture


3. Heat the milk in a saucepan until you see it starting to boil then remove from heat.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, heat milk


4. Whisk the milk into the egg mix.

This is known as tempering and done to avoid the hot milk from scrambling the eggs when combined

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, tempering egg mixture

5. Transfer the mixture back into the pan, stirring all the time until thick and boiling.

You need to stir constantly to avoid the mixture getting lumpy!

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, transfer egg mixture to pan and heat

The pastry cream will thicken and turn darker in color. You will also notice the foam/bubbles will have disappeared. Once thick, remove from the heat immediately.

Pastry cream thickness

6. Return the pastry cream to the mixing bowl by passing through a sieve to get any lumps out.

Pass pastry cream through sieve

7. Add the butter and vanilla extract and combine.

Do not add the butter until AFTER you have passed the mixture through a sieve as it will be too hot and likely to cause the pastry cream to split and go grainy.

Add butter to pastry cream
French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, add vanilla extract to egg mixture

The addition of butter at this point will give the custard mixture a silky shine and richness

Pastry cream showing glossy finish

8. Cover with plastic wrap, ensuring the wrap is directly touching the surface of the mixture to avoid a skin from forming.

Cover pastry cream surface with plastic wrap

9. Refrigerate until completely cold.

Whilst the pastry cream is cooling, wash and slice your fruit, pop them on some kitchen paper and keep in the fridge until you're ready to assemble the fruit tart.

Make the glaze

  1. Place the Ground Arrowroot in a small saucepan and blend with a little of the cranberry juice to make a paste.
French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, glaze in pan

2. Add remaining juice and gently bring to the boil,

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, glaze starting to thicken

stirring until clear and thickened.

As the arrowroot heats up with the liquid, you will notice it becomes translucent and clear. The consistency will have thickened too. If your mixture is still cloudy, heat it until you see the change in color.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, glaze ready showing translucency

Leave to cool for 20 minutes.

Assemble the fruit tart

  1. Place the tart shell on a cake stand or serving plate.
    Using a pastry brush, spread the jelly evenly over the base of the tart. This will act as a seal to stop the pastry cream from making the base soggy.

If your jelly is too firm to brush, pop some in a small bowl and microwave for 20 seconds to loosen it.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, brush tart shell with jam

2. Spread the pastry cream evenly on top of the jam.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, add pastry cream to tart shell

3. Arrange the fruit on top of the pastry cream. Start around the outer edge in a circular pattern and continue making circles until you reach the centre. It should look like a blooming flower.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream, arrange fruit on top of pastry cream

4. Gently brush the warmed glaze over the fruits, working from the outer edge of the tart toward the centre. If your glaze has started to become too thick to brush, just pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds to loosen it and continue to brush the glaze over the fruits.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

5. When done, refrigerate for 2 hours or more then serve.

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other ingredients? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

Recipe Card

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream

Yield: 12
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Additional Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 55 minutes

French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!

Ingredients

For the vanilla sablé tart shell:

  • 80 grams or 1⁄2 cup + 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
  • 130 grams or 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

  • 190 grams or 1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour

  • 50 grams or (1⁄3 cup + 1 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon salt

Creme Patissiere

  • 8 egg yolks
  • 120g or ⅔ cup regular sugar
  • 6 & ½ tablespoons all purpose plain flour
  • 4 tsp cornflour
  • 560 ml or 19 fl oz milk
  • 200g or 7 oz unsalted butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Base

  • 2 tablespoons Strawberry jelly

The Fresh Fruit Topping

  • 1 lb of fresh mixed berries

The Glaze

  • Dr. Oetker Ground Arrowroot Sachet (1 tbsp)
  • 225 ml or 8 fl oz Cranberry Juice

Instructions

Make the sweet pastry

    1. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the confectioners’ sugar and butter for 30 seconds on low speed.
    2. Add the egg, and mix on medium speed until evenly combined.
    3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add to the mixer on low speed, and combine until there are no more dry patches.
    4. Finish mixing the dough by hand to ensure it is not over-mixed.
    5. Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper on your work surface and sandwich it with another sheet of parchment paper, flattening it into a 1-inch thick disk.
    6. Transfer the dough disk to a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, around 20 minutes.
    7. Generously dust flour on the work surface and rub onto a rolling pin. Remove the dough from the paper and and transfer it to your work surface. Roll the dough out into a circle about 1⁄8 inch (3mm) thick.
    8. Using your rolling pin, carefully transfer the rolled out dough to your tart tin, being careful not to break it. Drape it over the sides and then lift the pastry gently into the tin.
    9. Carefully go around the inside edging of the tin, gently pushing the dough inside. If you do happen to break or tear the pastry, use a little overhang and patch it up, making sure you don't have any cracks at all. Finally trim off any excess dough from the edge. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up.
    10. While the tart shell is chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) for conventional or 325°F (160°C) for convection.
    11. Bake the tart on the center rack for 20 - 25 minutes, until it’s a light golden brown.
    12. When ready, remove the tart shell by placing a cup or glass underneath and carefully sliding the outside tart ring in a downwards position. If you think some of the pastry is stuck to the sides, gently loosen using a small knife.
    13. Transfer to a cooling rack and remove the base of the tart tin. Allow the tart case to completely cool at room temperature.


Make the Creme Patissiere (Pastry Cream)

    1. Using a hand whisk, beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and slightly thickened.
    2. Whisk in the flours.
    3. Heat the milk in a saucepan until you see it starting to boil then remove from heat.
    4. Whisk the milk into the egg mix.
    5. Transfer the mixture back into the pan, stirring all the time until thick and boiling.
      The pastry cream will thicken and turn darker in color. Once thick, remove from the heat immediately.
    6. Return the pastry cream to the mixing bowl by passing through a sieve to get any lumps out.
    7. Add the butter and vanilla extract and combine.
    8. Cover with plastic wrap, ensuring the wrap is directly touching the surface of the mixture to avoid a skin from forming.
    9. Refrigerate until completely cold.
    10. Whilst the pastry cream is cooling, wash and slice your fruit, pop them on some kitchen paper and keep in the fridge until you're ready to assemble the fruit tart.


Make the glaze

    1. Place the Ground Arrowroot in a small saucepan and blend with a little of the cranberry juice to make a paste.
    2. Add remaining juice and gently bring to the boil, stirring until clear and thickened.
      Leave to cool for 20 minutes.

Assemble the fruit tart

    1. Place the tart shell on a cake stand or serving plate.
    2. Using a pastry brush, spread the jelly evenly over the base of the tart. This will act as a seal to stop the pastry cream from making the base soggy.
    3. Spread the pastry cream evenly on top of the jam.
    4. Arrange the fruit on top of the pastry cream. Start around the outer edge in a circular pattern and continue making circles until you reach the center. It should look like a blooming flower.
    5. Gently brush the warmed glaze over the fruits, working from the outer edge of the tart toward the center. If your glaze has started to become too thick to brush, just pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds to loosen it and continue to brush the glaze over the fruits.
    6. When done, refrigerate for at least 2 hours or more then serve.


Notes

When you assemble the fruit tart, it is important everything is chilled, so it's worth making the tart case and pastry cream the day before to save you time on the day you want to serve the fruit tart.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 412Total Fat: 27gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 201mgSodium: 131mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 2gSugar: 20gProtein: 7g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate

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