Mini Fruit Tarts with Crème Anglaise

Published September 16, 2018

Saturday Night Dinner

After an insane work week, I had the opportunity to catch up with some friends for a Saturday night dinner. Though they were cooking the main meal, and a talented baker was making cheesecake, I wanted to bring something as well.

Knowing they loved fruit tarts, I planned on swinging by the store on my way home from work (yes, my weekend job), to buy a fruit tart.

Yet Saturday morning when I got my creamer out of the fridge for my cup of coffee, I noticed a container of bright green kiwi, then blueberries — and I thought to myself: How difficult would it be to make my own fruit tart?

I hurried to my computer: What do you need to make a custard? What do you need to cook a tart crust? How long does it take?

I realized I already had all of the ingredients I needed to pull this off. Since I didn’t have the traditional, crimped edge, fruit tart pan, I decided to use my muffin tins to make individual, mini tarts.

My Mini Fruit Tarts | Ingredients

As always, be creative with your toppings and preferences. I like any type of fruit, though blueberries are my favorite. I would’ve loved to have put coconut or white chocolate flakes around the edges of my tarts (hindsight).

I opted not to put the gelatin glaze over top my fruit (to make them shiny). Though if you want to, feel free. You can also heat your favorite jam or jelly and drizzle over top as well.

Mini Fruit Tarts with Crème Anglaise | Instructions

There’s an element to every dish I make, especially since this was also a recipe “first” for me, in which I feel nervous. This week, it was making the custard.

As I’ve said before, I’m not much of a baker, so tarts and custards seemed (somewhat) daunting. However, the steps for making these elements (though they take some time), were straight-forward.

My Thoughts

I’m visually satisfied with the way my mini fruit tarts turned out. The bright fruit looks inviting, and I like the variety of colors on the plate.

In total, my dough made 23+ mini fruit tarts.

The Crème Anglaise

I began this week’s cooking adventure under the impression that I was making a custard. However, I don’t think I cooked it quite long enough.

From my research it was stressed not to boil the cream and milk, so I kept my flame on the lowest possible. After about 15 minutes the mixture heated through. I was worried about curdling and boiling it, so as it began to thicken I removed it from the heat. In hindsight, 5 more minutes probably would’ve thickened it into a true custard.

After refrigerating, my “custard” turned into a crème anglaise (a dessert cream sauce). The flavor was great — vanilla and rich. It was the saucy consistency I was disappointed in. I was hoping for a thick, pudding-like custard.

Either way though, the creme anglaise didn’t detract from the dessert, it was just messier to eat.

The Tart Crust

Well, if you’ve read the recipe card you’ve seen that the crust calls for 2 sticks of butter. Anything with that much butter is going to be delicious.

I was hyped about the crust. The texture was crumbly like a short-bread. The flavor reminded me of the homemade, cut-out sugar cookies at Christmas-time: light, floury (not sweet), but with the richness from the butter.

The Toppings

While I do love the blueberries, I think the kiwi and pineapple was the best combination with the vanilla and butter from the crème anglaise and crust.

K. Martinelli Makes Mini Fruit Tarts with Crème Anglaise

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