Simple Spring Orange & Lime Fruit Tarts
Fruit tarts in pastry cases are my absolute kryptonite. I either have to be incredibly stuffed or broke to walk by one displayed at a bakery and not stop in for a bite. The buttery, almost cookie-like crust filled with sweet cream and topped with an assortment (or not) of fruit – yeah, it’s always gonna be a yes for me. Not going to lie, I also love that they are rarely shareable and sized just for me, with a little extra (which I eat all in one go).
Since we’re hitting those sunshine-filled spring temperatures but still pulling in the seasonality of winter citrus, I thought what better way to welcome the warmth and say goodbye to the chill, than with these bright individual fruit tarts.
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SIMPLE SPRING CITRUS FRUIT TARTS
The best fruit tarts have that balance of sharp, from the fresh fruit on top, to sweet, from the pastry cream and buttery, lightly sweet crust. This one doesn’t disappoint. You’ll start by making your pastry cream, which needs a little time to chill and set in the fridge. Then the pastry crust, which comes together easily in a bowl (even easier if you own a food processor), then is rolled and shaped into your tart pans. While everything is cooling, pop a squat and cut out your fruit segments – this is where berries take the… tart? since they are ready to go as-is.
Assembly is easy, filling each tart with pastry cream and topping with your fresh fruit. As an optional, but pretty garnish, brush with a little apricot jam for that glossy finish before enjoying every bite!
What’s the point of blind baking? Blind baking helps to ensure the structure of your crust holds as it bakes, which is why you’ll first line your pie pan with parchment paper and fill with a baking weight, so it can start to set in the oven. Blind baking also helps prevent a soggy crust on the bottom of your tart, especially if you’re adding a wet filling.
INGREDIENTS
- Salt – A key player when it comes to flavor enhancement and balance
- Flour – Binds together your crust and absorbs any excess moisture
- Powdered Sugar – Adds a sweetness but also makes for a more tender bite
- Unsalted Butter – Enhances the texture of your crust and gives a silky smooth finish to your pastry cream
- Eggs – Works as both a thickening agent and texture player in your pastry cream while binding your crust together and giving a slightly golden hue
- Whole Milk – Brings the creamy richness to your cream
- Vanilla Extract – There for delicious flavor
- Granulated Sugar – Sweetens your cream while also working to prevent the eggs from scrambling when combined with warm milk
- Cornstarch – A key thickening agent for your cream
- Citrus Fruit – A perfectly balanced fruit topping for your sweet cream
- Apricot Jam – Provides an optional glossy finish to your tart
How do you get that glossy finish on your fruit tarts? Such a simple but effective solution comes in the form of apricot jam! It’s a neutral enough flavor that it doesn’t affect the taste of your tart, and when brushed on your fruits, it gives a beautiful shine
HOW TO MAKE SIMPLE SPRING ORANGE & LIME FRUIT TARTS
Your pastry cream will need time to cool in the fridge, so we’ll start by making that first. Add your milk and vanilla to a medium pot, and place on the stove to heat until bubbles start to appear along the rim. To note, it shouldn’t boil but reach a scald. While you’re milk heats, whisk together your eggs and sugar for a minute – you’ll notice they’ll lighten in color. Then add in your cornstarch and flour to your eggs, whisking until combined. At this point, your milk should be heated so remove it from the stove and stream in a third of the mixture to your eggs, whisking as you do. Repeat until all of your milk is combined.
Rinse your pot in cold water; this helps to almost “reset” your pan for baking, so it doesn’t start prematurely cooking your cream mixture. Pour your mixture into the pot and return to the stove, bringing it to a boil. Only boil it for a minute – you don’t want it to thicken too much, and remove from the heat. Drop in a cube of butter at a time, whisking between each drop, until all of your butter is incorporated. Place a layer of plastic wrap or parchment paper touching the top of your cream before covering your bowl and popping it in the fridge for a few hours, until your cream has chilled through.
Use a small piece of butter or a butter wrapper to thoroughly grease your tart pans, making sure to get into all the edges and ridges. Sprinkle in a little flour and gently tap your pan to spread it along the sides and bottom. Set your pan aside while you make your crust.
For this step, while I used to always make a crust in a bowl, I now use a food processor, which makes it a little faster. That being said, whatever you’re using, through in your dry ingredients, give them a quick stir, and then add in your cubed butter. Pulse or rub your butter into your dry ingredients until you get an almost sand-like consistency. Add in your egg yolk and cut it through the mixture. At this point, dump your dough onto a surface or keep it in a bowl, and begin to press it together with your hands. Form your dough into a ball and place between two sheets of parchment paper, rolling to ⅛” thickness.
Take one of your prepped tart pans and use it as a stencil to cut out two discs from the rolled dough, cutting so there is about an inch-wide edge. You’ll need to re-roll your dough once or twice to get enough for all four tart pans. Lightly loosen the edges of the dough to fill each tart pan, gently pressing into the edges, and rolling off any excess dough along the rim with your rolling pin. Pop your tarts into the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 320°F on the convection setting. Once your dough has chilled and your oven is hot, remove your pans from the fridge and use a fork to prick the bottoms of each pan. Then, line each with parchment paper before pouring in your baking weights, flattening to make sure they’re in all the nooks and crannies. Place two pans on a baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes before carefully removing the parchment paper and baking weights and returning to the oven for another 8-10 minutes. Your crust should be very lightly golden. Repeat with the remaining two crusts. Allow them to cool completely in their pans before using an inverted glass to remove the pans. Place your pans on top of the glass and gently push the sides down before using a knife to remove the bottom of the pan.
While your crusts cool, cut the tops and bottoms off your oranges and lime before using a pairing knife to skin your fruit, removing the skin and pith. Then, with your knife, cut out each segment of fruit. Yes, this will be the most tedious part of this bake, but it’s so much more delicious than just peeling your fruit and leaving that outer layer on. Once your fruit is cut, grab a small pot and add in your apricot jam and a splash of water. Stir it over medium-low heat until it loosens to a brushable consistency.
To assemble, split your pastry cream between each tart and smooth out with a spoon. Top each tart with your fruit and brush with apricot jam. Enjoy!
3 reasons you’ll love these tarts
TIPS & VARIATIONS
- Swap the citrus for whatever fruit you have on hand! I love a mixed berry tart with strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, or anything with kiwi or mango. Keep in mind when choosing your fruit that the cream is sweet, so having a little tangy balance is perfect.
- Add a little lemon, lime, or orange zest to your pastry cream before you return it to the stove for an extra tangy bite
- When bringing your cream to a boil, be careful not to boil for longer than a minute. You want to keep your cream creamy, and overcooking it will thicken it too much
- If you made your pastry cream ahead but found it formed a slight skin, just scrape it off and discard. If your cream is a bit lumpy, throw it into a blender or use an immersion blender and pulse it a few times to smooth it out
- If you only have a 9-inch tart pan, you can easily make this into one large fruit tart instead of 4 small ones! While you will have some excess dough if you make the smaller tarts, you should use all of the dough in a 9-inch pan.
MAKING AHEAD & STORING
You can flatten your pastry dough into a disc, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and store it in the fridge for 2-3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let it warm a little on the counter a few hours before you plan to roll it. It should be cool but workable.
Your pastry cream can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-5 days, but be sure to keep parchment paper or plastic wrap directly on the surface so it doesn’t form a skin.
Your baked and assembled tarts should be kept in a sealed container and can last up to two days in the fridge. These are best consumed the day you assemble them!
MORE TART RECIPES
If you want to feed a crowd, try these Mini Fruit Tarts made with a muffin tin! For something on the chocolate side, these Individual Triple Chocolate Brownie Pies are absolutely decadent. If you love a salty-sweet balance, you have to make this Simple Chocolate Salted Toffee Tart!
Equipment
- Large Bowl
- Dough Scraper or Spatula
- Fork
- Parchment Paper
- Rolling Pin
- 4, 4.5-inch Tart Pans
- Pie weights or baking beans/rice*
- Baking Sheet
- Medium Pot
- Spatula
- Small pot
- Heat-proof bowl
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Pairing Knife
- Pastry Brush
Ingredients
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter cold & cubed
- 1 large egg yolk beaten
- 2 cups whole milk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ tbsp cornstarch
- 3 ½ tbsp unsalted butter cubed
- 3 pounds of citrus fruit I used oranges and a lime
- 1 tbsp apricot jam optional
Instructions
PASTRY CREAM
- In a medium pot, heat your milk and vanilla until bubbles appear around the rim, but it’s not boiling yet
- While your milk is heating, whisk together your eggs and sugar for one minute in a heat-safe pitcher
- Add your cornstarch and flour to your egg/sugar mixture, then whisk for another minute until everything is incorporated.
- Once your milk is warmed, stream in ⅓ of the liquid into your egg mixture, whisking constantly. Repeat with another third, whisk, and then the final third, until all is incorporated
- Rinse your pot with cold water and wipe out any residue. Return all of the liquid from the pitcher back to the pot
- Place the pot over medium heat and use a whisk to constantly stir the mixture as it thickens. Bring it to a boil and let it boil for only one minute, stirring continuously so it evenly thickens.
- Remove the pot from the heat and drop in one cube of butter at a time, whisking each in before adding another piece. Repeat until all your butter is added
- Pour your pastry cream into a bowl and cover the surface of the cream with plastic wrap or parchment paper to prevent a skin from forming, before placing it in the fridge for a few hours to cool completely
CRUST
- Grease your tart pans with butter, then sprinkle with flour – gently tapping the pan along the edges to cover the inside with a layer of flour – and set aside
- Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and give them a quick stir to combine
- Add in your cubed cold butter and gently stir to coat. Rub the butter through the dry ingredients between your fingers to combine until you get a fine, sand-like consistency
- Add in your beaten egg yolk and cut through the mixture with a dough scraper or spatula
- Gently compress dough to begin to bring it together into a ball, then dump the dough and any “dust” onto your work surface
- Using a smearing technique, gently smear out a few sections with a dough scraper or your hand, pushing a section out, and then scraping back together, towards the dough ball. Keep an eye on your dough, once there are no more dry spots, stop mixing
- Gently form your dough into a ball of sorts, place it between two pieces of parchment paper, and roll it into a circle about ⅛” thick
- Invert one of your tart pans onto your crust and cut a circle around it, without about 1 inch of a lip from the pan. Repeat with another tart pan, then roll and do again until you’ve got crust for all four pans
- Carefully transfer the dough into each tart pan and lightly loosen the edges of the dough so it fits into the mold. Gently press dough into the rim and bottom, making sure the dough is a consistent thickness throughout. Use a rolling pin to roll off any excess dough from the rim. Press in any thick spots remaining
- Place your tart pans lined with dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes
- Preheat oven to 320°F CONVECTION
- Once the temperature is reached, remove two pans from the fridge and place them onto a cookie sheet. Use a fork to prick the bottom and sides of the dough before crinkling a bit of parchment paper and laying some into each tart pan, on top of the dough. Fill with rice/baking beans and gently even out into a flat layer
- Place into the oven on the middle rack and blind bake for 8 minutes
- Gently to avoid tearing, remove weights/beans/rice and return to oven for another 8-10 minutes or until the center of each crust is lightly golden in color. Repeat with the other two tart pans. Cool completely inside the mold
- Remove the tart from the pan by simply placing the mold over a stable circular object, smaller than the rim of the pan (for example, an inverted glass), and gently push the rim of the tin down to release. Use a knife or your fingers to remove the base of the tin from the bottom of your crust
TOPPING
- Cut the top and bottom off of your citrus fruits and then use a pairing knife, along the shape of your fruit, to cut off the skin and the pith (the white, bitter layer). Then use your knife to cut out each segment of fruit and place it on a plate. Repeat with all of your fruit
- Add your apricot jam to a pot with a splash of water and place over low heat, stirring until your jam loosens
ASSEMBLY
- Spread your chilled pastry cream evenly into each of your crusts
- Layer your citrus segments along the top of the pastry cream and brush with your apricot jam
- Enjoy!
