Red and Blue Fruit Tarts
There was a strawberry farm on Martha’s Vineyard that grew the most amazing strawberries. Thimble Farms’s berries were the essence of the perfect strawberry – fragrant, juicy, and sweet. During the peak berry season, I would drive the Seven Layers van over there and pick up a few flats (12 pints) for our strawberry desserts. The most popular of these was a strawberry tart consisting of these magical berries sitting atop a lightened pastry cream filling and a crisp puff pastry shell. We made them in both circles and rectangles.
I was working on replicating the Seven Layer strawberry tarts when I realized that making a second one with blueberries would be perfect. Together, they would make a wonderful July 4th dessert, with the Pastry Cream or Mascarpone Cream adding the white element.Â
As rectangles, they are very easy to slice into small portions, allowing your guests to have a piece of each.Â
This basic technique works with any summer berry, such as in our Raspberry Tart.
Red and Blue Fruit Tarts
| Yield: 2 8†long tarts | # of Servings: 12 |
Ingredients:
12 oz Puff Pastry or 1 box store bought frozen puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ recipe Pastry Cream
¼ cup heavy cream
or,
Mascarpone Filling:
8 oz mascarpone, room temperature
â…“ cup (2.3 oz / 65 g) granulated sugar
â…“ cup (2.67 fl oz) heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 ½ pints strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and halved
1 cup apricot preserves, strained and heated, optional
1 pint blueberries, rinsed
Confectioners’ sugar, as needed
Special tools and equipment:
- Half sheet pan (17.5†by 12.5â€), or large cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper or a silpat.
- Small pastry wheel
- Small offset spatula, optional
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Clear a space in the refrigerator to hold the 17.5†by 12.5†half sheet pan
- Clear space on your work counter or kitchen island to roll out the puff pastry.
Directions
Rolling out and baking the pastry:
- Roll the puff pastry into a 14†by 12†rectangle. Chill for 30 minutes.
- Cut two rectangles 12†by 5â€. Brush a ¼†border of egg wash on the long sides of each rectangle. Using your thumb and index finger, create a decorative border on both long sides of each puff strip. Brush edge lightly with egg wash. Use a fork to prick holes in the bottom of each strip. Refrigerate for one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Bake the puff pastry strips until golden brown, approximately 20 to 22 minutes. Keep an eye on the pastry after 15 minutes, if it is getting overly brown reduce heat of 350°F.
- Turn oven off, and let the pastry stay in turned off oven for another 5 minutes, to ensure it is baked through.
- Remove pan from oven, place on rack until cool.
Finishing the tarts:
- If using pastry cream – in a chilled bowl, whip the cream to just soft peaks. Stir in a large spoonful of the whipped cream, then fold in the remainder.
- Mascarpone cream – in mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the mascarpone and the sugar just until combined. Beat in the heavy cream, vanilla, and lemon rind, just until smooth. Do not overbeat, as the mixture will become grainy.
- Place the fruit tarts on rectangular serving plates, or a nice cutting board.
- Spread a thin layer of filling over each strip.
- For the strawberry tart, layer strawberry slices over the cream.
- Optional apricot glaze: Melt apricot jam over low flame and strain through a fine mesh strainer. Brush lightly over the strawberries.
- For the blueberry tart: scatter the blueberries over the tart. Dust lightly with confectioners’ sugar.
- Keep refrigerated until serving the same day. Slice with a serrated knife.
