This post may contain affiliate links.
Everyone needs a go-to fruit tart recipe and this is mine. It strikes the perfect balance between familiar yet totally unique, and elegant yet very doable. If you’re looking to impress, this is the tart to make. Each bite is crunchy, creamy, sweet, fruity and ever so lightly flavored with a dash of almond and vanilla. It really is outstanding.
I’ve been developing tart recipes for years. In the Cuisine at Home Test Kitchen, all of us recipe developers always vied for the dessert recipes. They’re more fun to make and are harder to develop, which meant you got to spend more time in the kitchen.
Regardless, whenever there was a tart recipe up for grabs, I usually got it. Over the years I’ve developed more than 15 different tart recipes, and this just might be my favorite. It’s an elevated take on a classic fruit tart that can be topped with any kind of fruit.
What’s So Great About This Fruit Tart
- No Pastry Cream or Custard: most homemade fruit tart recipes feature pastry cream or custard. That requires a lot of egg yolks, skills, and chilling time. Instead, this fruit tart recipe features an easier creamy whipped filling that’s light yet decadent.
- Press In Crust: no fussing with making a tart crust dough, chilling it, and rolling it out. This crust comes together in one bowl then gets pressed into the crust and immediately baked. (No blind baking either!)
- Perfectly Sweet: there isn’t a lot of added sugar in this tart. Which, after one bite, will surprise you. No matter what fruit you choose to use, this tart is perfectly balanced with sweetness.
Ingredients Needed for Fresh Fruit Tart
Tart Crust
- Whole-wheat pastry flour: surprisingly, whole-wheat pastry flour is the ideal flour for a press-in crust. Once baked, it adds toasty, nutty flavor and it crisps up really nicely.
- Sugar: a few tablespoons of granulated sugar is all you need. For a naturally sweetened option, use ground coconut sugar.
- Rosemary: minced fresh rosemary adds depth of flavor and herbiness. It can be skipped or swapped out for thyme.
- Olive Oil: instead of butter, use olive oil! It creates a very crisp crust that stays crisp. Use an olive oil that you enjoy—I like a robust flavored olive oil, but if you prefer something less spicy and less grassy, use a regular (not extra-virgin) olive oil.
Creamy Filling
- Unflavored gelatin: important for setting the filling.
- Heavy cream, chilled: whipped for the base of the filling.
- Mascarpone, chilled: to add density and creaminess to the filling. There is no substitute for this.
- Honey: a few tablespoons nicely sweetens the filling and pairs well with fruit.
- Amaretto liqueur: this is optional, but adds a soft almond flavor and a bit of sweetness.
- Pure almond extract: more almond flavor, if you don’t use the amaretto, use a bit more almond extract.
- Pure vanilla extract: deepens the flavor of the filling.
How to Make This Fruit Tart Recipe
Make the Crust
- Combine flour, sugar, rosemary, and salt in a large bowl.
- Using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix oil and water into the flour mixture until combined and mixture looks slightly crumbly.
- Crumble three-quarters of the dough mixture into the bottom of a tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough into an even layer.
- Crumble the remaining dough around the edges of the pan; press into the sides in an even thickness.
- Bake the tart crust until golden brown and firm to the touch, about 35 minutes.
Make the Creamy Filling
- Hydrate the gelatin in water for 5 minutes. Meanwhile measure out the rest of the filling ingredients. Microwave gelatin mixture until bubbling around the edges, about 10 seconds.
- Add the cream, honey, amaretto, almond extract, and vanilla extract to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
- With the mixer running on medium-low, slowly add in the warmed gelatin mixture. Continue whisking until foamy, then increase speed to medium-high and whip just until stiff peaks form.
- In a small bowl, combine the mascarpone with a couple spoonfuls of the whipped cream mixture until mostly incorporated. Then fold mascarpone mixture into remaining whipped cream mixture just until combined.
- Evenly spread filling into cooled tart crust; refrigerate 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prep your fruit.
- Arrange fruit over tart as desired, then brush with melted apple jelly, if using. Return tart to refrigerator and chill 30 minutes more.
Glazed Fruit Tart
Brush the fruit with some lightly warmed honey, melted apricot jam, or melted apple jelly to hold the fruit together and in place. It also adds a stunning sheen to the top of the tart. Don’t skip this step!
If using honey, microwave 2 tablespooins honey in a microwave-safe bowl for about 10 seconds, then use a pastry brush to brush over the fruit.
If using apricot or apple jelly, place a few spoonfuls of jelly in a small glass bowl and microwave until fluid, this will take 10 to 15 seconds. Working quickly, use a pastry brush to brush/lightly dab the jelly over the fruit.
How to Make a Fruit Tart Ahead of Time
This fresh fruit tart is best eaten on the same day as it’s made. Though it’s also good up to 1 day ahead of time.
Alternatively, I recommend prepping components ahead of time and assembling a few hours before serving.
- The crust can be baked, cooled and stored at room temperature up to 2 days ahead of time.
- The filling can be made and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 1 day ahead of time.
How to Store Fresh Fruit Tart
Store this tart in the refrigerator. If serving the day you make it, no need to cover it. If storing leftovers, lightly cover the tart with plastic wrap.
Fruit tart will last up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
Can I Freeze This Fruit Tart?
This fruit tart, and most fruit tarts, should not be frozen. Freezing this tart will destroy not only the filling but the beautiful fruit as well.
Fruit Tart Variations
Here, I topped the tart with a combination of fresh summer berries, but play around with seasonal fruit so you can make this year-round.
- Classic: skip the almond and amaretto and top the tart with kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, clementines, and/or raspberries.
- Elegant: skip the almond and amaretto and instead add some vanilla bean paste to the filling. Top the tart with berries, chocolate shavings, and edible flowers.
- Lemony: add the zest of a lemon to the mascarpone whipped cream, skip the amaretto and almond extract, and add a splash more vanilla. Skip the rosemary in the crust.
- Zesty: Add a combination of lemon, lime and orange zest to the filling. Skip the amaretto and almond and add a bit more vanilla. Skip the rosemary in the crust.
- Tropical: add lime zest to the filling, skip the amaretto and almond and instead add some coconut extract. Top the tart with pineapple and toasted coconut. Skip the rosemary in the crust.
- Spicee: add warm spices to the crust and the filling, just a pinch or so of cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or clove will do the trick.
- Wintery: top the tart with orange slices, pomegranate arils, and/or candied cranberries.
- Fall: top the tart with honeyed apples, pears or persimmons.
What Fruit is Best For Fruit Tart?
I love topping this tart with a mixture of fresh berries, but depending on the time of year and availability—and your personal preference—it may not make sense to top this with berries. The type of fruit used is not a hard-and-fast rule, use whatever you like or can find!
- Stone fruit: peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, and/or cherries
- Tropical: pineapple, kiwi, and/or mango
- Citrus: Blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, clementines, grapefruit, and/or tangelo
- Orchard: apples, pears, quince, and/or persimmons
More Popular Tart Recipes
Fruit Tart Recipe
Description
Save This Recipe!
We’ll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later.
Ingredients
Crust
- 5 tablespoons (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 ¾ cups (210g) whole-wheat pastry flour
- 2 teaspoons chopped rosemary, optional
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- ⅓ cup (745) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1½ tablespoons cold water
Filling
- ½ teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- 2 teaspoons water
- ¾ cup (185g) heavy cream chilled
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur, optional*
- ½ teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch kosher salt
- 4 ounces mascarpone, chilled
Assembly
- 1 cup blueberries
- 2 tablespoons honey, divided
- ½ cup raspberries
- ½ cup blackberries
- Chopped fresh rosemary
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350ºF (163ºC) with rack set in middle position.
Crust
- Whisk together sugar, flour, rosemary, and salt. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix oil and 1 ½ tablespoons water into the flour until combined and mixture looks slightly crumbly.
- Crumble three quarters of the dough into the bottom of a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Press dough into an even thickness lining the bottom of the pan. Crumble and scatter remaining dough around the edge of the pan; firmly press dough up and into the edge into an even thickness.
- Bake crust on a rimmed baking sheet until deep golden brown and firm to touch, 30–35 minutes, rotating halfway through. Transfer sheet to a wire rack and let crust cool completely.
Filling
- Sprinkle gelatin over 2 teaspoons water in a small bowl and let sit until softened, about 3 minutes. Microwave gelatin mixture until bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, 10–15 seconds.
- Add the cream, honey, amaretto, almond extract, and vanilla extract to bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. With mixer running on medium-low, slowly add warmed gelatin mixture. Continue whisking until foamy about 1 minute.
- Increase speed to medium-high and whip just until stiff peaks form, 2–3 minutes (keep an eye on it, the addition of gelatin will make it whip much quicker.)
- Add mascarpone to a small bowl, add a few scoops of the whipped cream mixture to mascarpone and fold to combine (you may need to whisk a bit to incorporate completely—I just use the whisk attachment and do it by hand).
- Transfer mascarpone mixture to bowl with remaining whipped cream mixture and gently fold until combined.
Assembly
- Spread mascarpone cream evenly into cooled tart crust; refrigerate tart until filling has set a bit, about 30 minutes.
- Add blueberries to a small mixing bowl. Slightly warm 2 tablespoons honey in a very small microwave-safe bowl for about 8 seconds. Drizzle 1 tablespoon honey over blueberries and toss to coat. Scatter blueberries as desired over tart. Arrange blackberries and raspberries over top (I like to halve some of the berries for visual appeal).
- Using a pastry brush, dab remaining warmed honey over blackberries and raspberries.
- Chill assembled tart in refrigerator for 15 minutes before serving.
- To serve, remove outer ring of tart pan, slide a thin metal spatula between tart and and tart pan bottom, and carefully slice tart onto a serving platter or cutting board.
I made this for the 4th and my crew loved it! The crust is so flavorful, a bit savory and the texture is amazing! And the filling is really good. I made it using a rectangular tart pan and did increase the crust and filling by 1.5 which worked great. Because it was for the 4th, I made the top into a flag and it was so cute! Love!
Lori, such a great idea to make it in a rectangular pan and make a flag! I will have to do that next year for the 4th, such a great idea! Thanks for trying it! 🙂