Fruit Tartelette

I am in LOVE with Fruit Tarts.

It must be from my infatuation with buttered crusts. Pie Crusts and tart crusts...does it get any better than that? I think not. 

The simplicity and beauty of a tart contributes to the perfect bite because you feast first with your eyes and then your stomach. You have the bright and colorful fruit on top of a creamy, silky, custard, followed by a crisp, crumble tart shell. The different textures all in one bite. 

I never thought that I would ever attempt to make tarts because I heard tart shells, like pie crusts, were dependent on cold everything to make the perfect crust. However, this recipe I stumbled across on foodgawker.com used room temperature butter to make the crust! (original recipe here)

This makes my life so much easier.

Lets get to cooking!

Sweet Tart Dough

Ingredients:

9        oz unsalted butter at room temperature

1        cup sugar

1/4     tsp salt

2        large eggs, at room temperature

3 1/2  cup all-purpose flour

Egg wash (optional)

1        egg, beaten

2        tsp water

salt     pinch

Directions:

1. Using a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and salt at medium speed until smooth.
2. Add eggs. One at a time. Mix until smooth before adding another. Scrape the side of the bowl occasionally.
3. Add flour all at once and mix at low speed until just incorporated.
4. On a lightly floured surface, pour out the dough. Divide the dough into four equal portions.  Shape each portion into a ball and then into a disk about 1/2" thick.  Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 325°F
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into 1/8" thick and cut out pieces of 1" to 2" bigger than your tart pan or tart rings. Transfer the dough to the tart pan and apply slight pressure to the bottom and side of the pan.
7. Put the pastry shell in the fridge and chill for 15 minutes or until firm.
8. Dock bottom of the tart shell with a fork, making holes around 2" apart.  
9. If using 31/2" tart rings, bake for 10 mins.  Mix egg wash ingredients.  Take out the tart shell and brush the bottom and side lightly with egg wash.  According to the book, this can seal the bottom and the side of the tart shell to avoid the tart shell to get soggy that easily.
10. Put the tart shell back to the oven and bake for another 20mins, or until lightly browned.

Instead of tart rings I went with muffin tins. 

the original recipe also calls for some homemade custard but I cheated by using trader joes' vanilla pudding mix.

I used one cup whole milk and one cup heavy cream. You can put in a 1/4 tspn of vanilla if you fancy or perhaps a vanilla bean.

This takes approximately 5 mins to set. 

I've stored the extra dough in the freezer for next time! :)

ENJOY!!!