Starry Wisdom

A fruit tart has 4 basic parts:

1) Crust
2) Custard
3) Fruit
4) Glaze

My girlfriend Mackenzie recently made a fantastic, no, *#$%ing awesome fruit tart, using a mixture of various recipes for 3 of the 4 parts above. The fruit, of course, was baked by nature.

The impetus for this was a birthday dinner for a friend of ours, and Mackenzie volunteered to bring a dessert. The original plan was a chocolate based dessert on a graham cracker crust that she had made previously, but research showed that our friend preferred fruit based desserts. This, coupled with a fantastic recipe for a coconut pudding that we found to use up the rest of a can of coconut milk that we used in a curry recipe, lead to the recipe transcribed below.

For the Crust:

From Giada De Laurentis

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform or tart pan
3. Place the graham crackers and coconut in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture forms fine crumbs, 15 to 20 seconds. Add the butter and pulse until incorporated. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.
4. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes

For the Custard:

From America’s Test Kitchen Cooking for Two 2010

Note – this can refrigerated in an air tight container for up to 2 days.

1. Whisk the sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a small saucepan. Slowly whisk in the coconut milk and then the egg.
2. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat, whisking gently but constantly and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the pudding is thick and coats the back of a spoon – 1 or 2 minutes longer.
3. Strain the pudding through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, scraping the inside of the strainer with a rubber spatula to pass the pudding through. Serve warm or cover with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap onto the surface of the pudding, and refrigerate until cool, about 3 hours. Stir genly before serving.

For the Fruit:

The fruit is kiwi, raspberries, peaches, strawberries and blueberries. You’re going to have to estimate this yourself, there are no exact measurements. This image will serve as a template, however:

For the Glaze:

The glaze is a tricky bit. I will detail here the glaze that Mackenzie actually used, but I will also provide a recipe for one that we feel might be more appropriate as it would have a thinner consistency and be easier to apply.

The glaze used, from cooks.com:

1. In a heavy saucepan, boil down the syrup until thick. Let cool for 5 mins so it is warm, but not hot to the touch.

Alternate recipe from joyofbaking.com:

1. Heat the apricot jam or preserves and water (if using) in a small saucepan over medium heat until liquid (melted).
2. Remove from heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps. (If using, add the liqueur at this point.)
3. Let cool until it is only slightly warm.

To assemble the tart:

1. Prepare the crust and custard detailed above. Wash and slice the fruit as appropriate. Make the glaze as detailed above.
2. Spread the custard on the crust in an even layer.
3. Lay out the fruit as desired on top of the custard.
4. If using the first glaze recipe: spoon over tart, being careful not to create deep wells of glaze. Do not try to brush or spread as it will be quite sticky and will disrupt the fruit. The glaze can also be used to glue some fruit pieces (such as the peaches) down.
5. If using the alternate glaze recipe: gently brush the glaze onto the fruit with a pastry brush.
6. Refrigerate until well chilled