This Almond and Fresh Fruit Tart is reminiscent of a French bakery, lightly sweet, refined, simple, and bursting with flavor and textures.
Visits to France mean lots of things, but one of the best traditions is the daily pilgrimage to the bakery. I’m lucky if the boulangerie (bread baker) has a side of patisserie (pastry shop) and I can pick up a beautiful dessert at the same times as the daily baguette. More often than not, the fruit tarts are my first choice. A delicate pastry shell encasing a layer of sweet filling and topped with fresh fruit with a shiny glaze… it doesn’t get much better than that. And I dearly hope there are patisseries in heaven.
Making an Almond & Fresh Fruit Tart
You can have a patisserie in your very own kitchen with this almond and fresh fruit tart! It’s comprised of four parts:
- Sweet Pastry Crust
- Almond Pastry Cream
- Fresh Fruit (I used a mixture of berries, but you can also use stone fruits or any other soft fruit you’d like)
- Glaze
The Crust
For this fresh fruit tart, you’ll need to parbake a sweet pastry crust. I recommend my Sweet Tart Crust recipe for a delicate, melt-in-your-mouth pastry shell and have included it in the recipe card below. However, the post for the recipe is full of tips and baking guidance, so give it a read before baking! If you prefer something simple a shortbread crust would also work well.
Prepare the dough for pastry crust. Roll out the dough and line a 9″ tart pan with it. Make sure to press the dough into the corner of the tart pan and the fluting around the edges and trim off the excess dough with a sharp knife. Dock the bottom of the dough to prevent swelling during baking.
Tip: To get a more even crust, always roll away from you. Turn the circle of dough to get all sides rolled out.
Chill the dough for 15-20 minutes.
Line the pastry crust with parchment paper and fill it with ceramic baking bean, rice, dry beans, or sugar. This holds the bottom of the crust down while it’s parbaking.
Bake the crust at 375° for 10 minutes, then remove the parchment paper and weights. Bake the crust for an additional 5-8 minutes, or until the bottom is no longer doughy and the edges of the crust are beginning to turn golden brown. Allow the crust to cool before filling.
What is Parbaking?
Parbaking is simply partially baking your pastry crust with no filling. After filling, you finish baking the tart all together. This technique is used when you have a filling (like almond pastry cream) that will cook much faster than the crust. If you skip parbaking the crust, it will be doughy and soggy.
The Almond Pastry Cream
Almond Pastry Cream is a simple, classic filling that brings the almond to the Almond & Fresh Fruit Tart!
To make it, use a mixer with the paddle attachment on it and cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then, stir in almond meal. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, with 2 tsp. almond extract and beat until you have a cohesive, smooth mixture.
Pour the almond pastry cream into the tart until it’s about 2/3 full. The filling will puff up as it bakes, so allow room for it to grow a bit. Use the back of a spoon or a spatula to create an even layer and smooth top on the cream.
Reduce the oven heat to 350° and place the filled tart in the oven on a center rack. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the almond pastry cream is a deep golden brown color and has puffed slightly.
Remove the tart from the oven and let it cool completely before adding fruit to the top.
The Fresh Fruit
This layer is fairly self-explanatory–go crazy in the fresh fruit department! You can be creative and make your tart as fancy or simple as you like. Any of these fruits make for a stunning tart:
- Berries–Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. Mix and match them for a colorful tart, or use just one variety for an elegant effect. Raspberries are especially fragile, so be sure to keep a berry tart refrigerated.
- Stone Fruits– Peaches, nectarines, and cherries all complement the almond filling nicely. Peaches and nectarines oxidize (turn brown when exposed to oxygen), so make sure to cover them quickly and well with the glaze.
- Kiwi–for a fun bit of color and flavor! Kiwis pair especially well with flavors like strawberry and mango.
- Mango–Mango adds a nice tropical twist to a tart. You can create some intricate patterns and shapes with mango. Just be sure to glaze it quickly, as it also oxidizes
- Your Favorite Fruit– Really, you can add whatever fruits you love to this tart!
Fruits to Avoid for a Fresh Fruit Tart:
Bananas don’t work well for a tart, as they brown and become mushy very quickly. Also, avoid hard fruits like apples and most pears–these would be more appropriate in a baked tart.
The Glaze
This one is super simple! You’ll need to buy apple or apricot jelly, then simply melt it down in a saucepan to make it a runny glaze. Use a pastry brush to spread the glaze over the top of the fruit.
Make sure to cover all of the surfaces of the fruit with the glaze, especially if it’s a fruit that oxidizes. This includes fruits like peaches, nectarines, mangos, etc.
After glazing, store the almond and fruit tart in the refrigerator until serving. After it has been cut, refrigerate any leftovers in an airtight container for 2-3 days, or as long as the berries last.
Helpful Tools for Making Tarts
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- Baking Scale, for accurately measuring your ingredients.
- Rolling pin to roll out the crust.
- 9″ Tart tin with a removable bottom or a tart ring
- A sharp knife for clean cuts in the fruit
Other Posts that May be Helpful:
I’ve included everything you need for a beautiful almond and fresh fruit tart in this post. However, if you’d like more in-depth posts on the crust and almond pastry cream recipes, click on the pictures below for more information:
Beautiful Tart Inspiration:
Follow these beautiful Instagram accounts for some stunning pastries and inspiration:
Helpful Tools for Making Tarts
- Baking Scale, for accurately measuring your ingredients.
- Rolling pin to roll out the crust.
- Tart tin or ring, 9″
- A sharp knife for clean cuts in the fruit
Almond & Fresh Fruit Tart
- Total Time: 4-24 hours
- Yield: 1 9″ tart 1x
Description
This Almond and Fresh Fruit Tart is reminiscent of a French bakery, lightly sweet, refined, and bursting with flavor and textures.
Ingredients
For the Tart Crust
- 2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (63 g) powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 10 Tbsp. (143 g) butter, cool and not completely hard
- 1 large hard boiled egg yolk, grated
- 1 large egg yolk
- 3 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
For the Almond Cream Filling:
- 1 1/2 cup (165 g) almond flour
- 11 Tbsp. (155 g) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cups (150 g) white sugar
- 3 large eggs (150 g)
- 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (optional)
For the Topping:
- Soft fruit of your choice, sliced and cut as needed
- 1/4 cup apple or apricot jelly
Instructions
For the Tart Crust:
Fit your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. In its bowl, combine the flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Stir on low to combine. Cut the butter into small chunks, and add them to the flour mixture one at a time while the mixer is running. Continue to mix until it is all worked into the dry ingredients, and the mix looks like slightly clumpy sand.
Stir in the grated egg yolk, then the raw egg yolk, cream, and vanilla extract. Stir until a dough is beginning to form. The dry ingredients should be completely absorbed, but you want to stop mixing while the dough is still in several smaller clumps and hasn’t come together into one large ball.
Remove it from the bowl to a sheet of plastic wrap. Press it together gently to form a ball, then wrap it with the plastic wrap and press it into a disc. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before rolling and baking. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to three days.
To Bake the Tart Crust: Removed the dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll it into a round 1/4″ thick. Carefully lift the dough into your tart pan and press it into the edges and sides. Allow any extra dough to hang over the sides, and either run your rolling pin over the edges to remove it, or cut it off with a sharp knife. If any cracks are visible, press a bit of the excess dough into it with your fingers to fill it in. Put the crust back in the fridge until it’s chilled, about 15-20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Poke the crust 10-15 times with a fork, then line the crust with a sheet of parchment paper and fill it with baking weights, dry beans, sugar, or rice. Bake for 12 minutes, then remove it from the oven and lift the parchment paper with the weights from it. Return the crust to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes, or until the bottom crust is no longer shiny. The edges should be golden brown. Remove it from the oven and cool completely before adding the almond cream filling.
For the Almond Pastry Cream:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the soft butter and sugar together until they are well combined and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Add in the almond flour and beat until it’s completely combined. Next, mix in the eggs and almond extract, if using, and beat until it is a cohesive, smooth mixture.
The almond paste is now ready to use in a variety of tarts and pastries. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
For the Fresh Fruit:
Slice and shape any fruit that needs to be cut. Arrange your fruit over the top of the tart in whatever pattern you like.
For the Glaze:
Melt down the jelly in a saucepan until it is a runny glaze. Use a pastry brush to spread the glaze over the top of the fruit.
Make sure to cover all of the surfaces of the fruit with the glaze, especially if it’s a fruit that oxidizes. This includes fruits like peaches, nectarines, mangos, etc.
Refrigerate the tart until you are ready to slice and serve it.
- Prep Time: 1 hr. 15 min. + 2-24 hours chilling
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Pastry
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
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