Summer Loving: Tarte aux Fruit (Fruit Tart)

Summer is by far my favourite season – the sun, BBQs, the water, the minimal clothing that I get to wear! Along with autumn, it’s also my favourite season for desserts because I adore summer fruits. I would happily compromise my dignity and dance for watermelon and berries!


I’m sure the people who know me are already aware of my many culinary weaknesses - Spanish food, seafood, condensed milk and anything rose flavoured. And now I reveal another...*drum roll*…

…Crème Pâtissière…by gawd.

This heavenly goop of eggy and vanilla custard makes me quiver and can render me incoherent. It’s the one recipe that I know like the back of my hand and all the ingredients are readily available in my house. I use to whip up truckloads of it and store it in the fridge and if I had a sugar craving, I’d just eat it straight out of the bowl. Once I even scalded my lips eating it right out of the pot!


Now that I’m a little older and wiser, I have restricted its use to recipes – tarts, filings or pies – the uses are only limited to your imagination. My summer loving continues with the perfect dessert to complement a light summery meal and celebrates the best of summer berries - Tarte aux Fruits. It’s the perfect combo to celebrate the last month of summer and just because you deserve it, enjoy it with a bottle of chilled dessert wine like a sweet and berry-rich Brown Brothers Cienna or Dolcetto and Syrah.

Crème Pâtissière

2 C (500ml) milk
1 vanilla bean – halved lengthways with the seeds scraped
6 egg yolks
¾ C caster sugar (approx 165g)
1 Tbl cornflour
¼ plain flour

*The six egg yolks are there to give it its richness but if you happen to be low on eggs (like I was once), 4 whole eggs would suffice. Similarly you can substitute the vanilla bean with 1 Tbl of vanilla extract (add more if you like vanilla as much as I do!)*

In a heavy based saucepan, slowly bring the milk, vanilla pod and seeds (or vanilla extract) to just under the boil. When it starts to foam then it’s ready. Remove the vanilla pod and set the pan aside.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until it’s creamy and pale. Then add the flours and whisk to combine.

Temper the egg mixture by pouring a small amount of the hot milk and whisking it through vigorously.

Slowly pour in the hot milk while vigorously whisking until it’s all incorporated and smooth.

Return the mixture to the saucepan over medium heat and whisk or stir continuously until it’s thickened. You can tell when it’s ready when it starts to get more difficult to stir through the vanilla ‘goop’ (surely there’s a more scientific term for this?).

Transfer to a bowl and cover the surface with baking paper. This will prevent it from forming a crust. Place it immediately in the fridge and chill. Use within 2-3 days.

Tarte aux Fruits (serves 6)

100g icing sugar
250g plain flour
1/3 C (about 40g) ground almonds
100g butter – cold and chopped into pieces
1 egg
1 egg yolk

crème pâtissière (recipe above)
1 punnet each of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries

*Other fruits you can also use are raspberries, mulberries or peaches.*

Sift the icing sugar, flours and almonds into a food processor.

Add butter and process until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and egg yolk and process until it just comes together.

Divide pastry into six portions and shape each portion into a disc.

Wrap each disc individually with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Roll out the pastry discs between sheets of floured baking paper to 3mm thickness. Line 6 small tart tins (with removable bases) with pastry and freeze them for 30 minutes.

Line each pastry with baking paper and fill with weights or dried beans or rice.

Place on baking tray and bake for 20 minutes or until it’s lightly coloured.

Remove the pastry weights and baking paper and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until it’s all evenly golden. Cool the pastry cases.

To serve

Fill a third of each tart with the crème pâtissière, top with the fruits and dust with icing sugar.