Fresh Strawberry Tart
These pretty as a picture Fresh Strawberry Tarts are the perfect dessert to showcase the season’s ripest, most flavorful berries.
With the combination of sweet luscious berries, sweet, crisp crusts, and a dreamy cheesecake filling, this Fruit Tart Recipe will rock your world, or at least your taste buds!
Why These Tarts Work
After such a dreadful winter, it was a joy to find fragrant strawberries at the market. Surely a sign of spring! I snatched up a couple of boxes of ruby red berries as the wheels started turning in my sugar-deprived brain. I knew dessert was in order, and fresh strawberry tartlets came to mind.
- The buttery pastry shells can be made ahead of time.
- A simple filling of cream cheese and whipped cream is easy and delicious.
- If you wait until strawberries are ripe and fragrant, you’ll have a spectacular dessert.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Fruit Tart?
A tart is a pastry crust with shallow sides, a filling, and no top crust, according to The Food Lover’s Companion. Therefore, a fruit tart is any tart that incorporates fruit into the filling or topping.
How to Bake a Fruit Tart?
Some fruit tarts are filled and then baked and others, like this one, is baked then filled. Baking the shell first is called blind baking and often needs the assistance of pie weights to prevent the bottom of the crust from puffing up. There are ceramic pie weights or substitutes like dried beans.
How to Glaze a Fruit Tart?
My favorite trick is to use some jelly or jam that will complement the color of the fruit. Red currant jelly isn’t overly sweet and works well for strawberries and raspberries. Use a small pastry brush to lightly paint the jelly over the fruit.
Melt the jelly gently in the microwave to liquify it. Wait until it cools to room temperature so it doesn’t cook/discolor the berries. You may need to thin with some water and whisk until smooth.
How to Store a Fruit Tart?
If the filling is perishable, store the tarts in refrigerator covered with plastic to keep the fruit fresher for a longer time The plastic will also minimize the tart absorbing any refrigerator odors. When sliced strawberries are used, they’ll start showing their age after a night in the refrigerator. They’re still safe to eat for 3-4 days.
How to Make These Strawberry Fruit Tarts
- I rolled out the pastry crust, cut a few circles of dough, fit them in my tart pans, and prebaked them. The rest was a piece of cake…or pie as the case may be. There will be enough filling for five tarts, so gather the scraps to make another tart shell if desired.
- Cream cheese, sugar, and a bit of lemon juice were beaten till smooth, then incorporated into freshly whipped cream.
- Berries can be arranged on top of each tart in any manner you’d like.I arranged sliced berries on two and halved berries on the rest.
- A simple glaze of melted red currant jelly provided an elegant sheen. Easy, peasy. PRO-Tip: The easiest glaze for strawberries is some melted red jelly. I prefer currant, but raspberry or strawberry work well, too. You don’t want jam as it has pieces of fruit and seeds.
As Bill finished up the last one, he gushed, “These strawberry tartlets were really, really good. I could eat a hundred of them.” I can only imagine how they’d be with the peak of the season local berries.
Tip for Decorating Fresh Fruit Tarts
I love to play around with different ways to top strawberry tarts, whether full size or minis. Look for the brightest, most vibrant berries for the best presentation.
Tips for Making Strawberry Tarts
If you’ve made tarts before, you may be familiar with terms and techniques like blind baking. But in case you aren’t, here are some tips for making these strawberry tartlets.
First, you may need to buy some small tart pans (affiliate link) . I like the ones with removable bottoms, for easy removal and serving. Mine are 4 1/2-inch in diameter, but 4-inch would work, too.
The crusts need to be baked alone since the filling is no-bake. Baking without a filling is called blind-baking.
More Fruit Tart Recipes You’ll Love:
Don’t Forget to Subscribe!
Have you subscribed to my weekly newsletter? You’ll get the latest blog recipes plus some seasonal favorites delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning! And as a bonus, you’ll receive a series of 5 Tips & Recipes for Leveling Up Your Desserts! Of course, you can unsubscribe at any time!!
SUBSCRIBE HERE—> https://bit.ly/3tLQIcL
This recipe was first shared in March 2014. Photos and text were updated in 2021.
The Recipe: Fresh Strawberry Fruit Tarts
Sweet pastry crusts filled with a light cheesecake filling and topped with gorgeous ripe strawberries.
Ingredients
For crust:
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons cold butter, diced
- 2 tablespoons cold shortening, diced
- 3-4 tablespoons of ice cold water
For filling:
- 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- Fresh strawberries (12-16 depending on size)
- 2 tablespoons red currant jelly (or other red jelly)
Instructions
- Put flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse to mix.
- Add butter and shortening and pulse till the butter is the size of peas.
- Add water a little at a time and pulse till dough comes away from sides of bowl and forms a ball. You may not need all 4 tablespoons of water.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- After dough has chilled, roll out on lightly floured surface, then cut big enough rounds to fit into four 4 eo 4½ diameter tart pans. Remove excess dough. Chill filled tart pans if dough has softened.
- Preheat oven to 375º.
- Line tart pans with non-stick foil and fill with beans or ceramic pie weights. Bake for about 10 minutes, then remove the foil, prick the bottoms of the tarts with a fork and bake for another 15 minutes or till tart shells are lightly browned. Cool.
- Make filling. With hand mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice till light and fluffy.
- In another bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks and combine with the cream cheese mixture.
- Spread into cooled tart shells. Top with sliced or halved strawberries. Gently warm jelly in the microwave. Brush jelly over berries, then chill tarts for 30-60 minutes before serving.
Notes
Total time is about 2 hours with cooling and chilling included.
This recipe is for 4 fruit tarts, but I usually have enough dough and filling to make 5.
The crusts can be made the day before. On the day you plan to serve, make the filling and fill the shells. Add the berries and glaze within a few hours of serving time.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
5Serving Size:
1 tartAmount Per Serving: Calories: 502Total Fat: 32gSaturated Fat: 19gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 78mgSodium: 217mgCarbohydrates: 51gFiber: 1gSugar: 25gProtein: 5g
Thatskinnychickcanbake.com occasionally offers nutritional information for recipes contained on this site. This information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although thatskinnychickcanbake.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased can change the nutritional information in any given recipe. Also, many recipes on thatskinnychickcanbake.com recommend toppings, which may or may not be listed as optional and nutritional information for these added toppings is not listed. Other factors may change the nutritional information such as when the salt amount is listed “to taste,” it is not calculated into the recipe as the amount will vary. Also, different online calculators can provide different results. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information obtained is accurate.
