The Roof Restaurant's Fruit Tart

Sundays are a special day in our home.

We spend time playing and reading and talking together as a family. We attend church meetings where we worship, pray, sing, study the scriptures and gospel doctrine. We enjoy quiet moments, visiting friends and family, and of course, we always look forward to a delicious Sunday dinner followed by a yummy dessert.

On Sundays it is easy to remember just how blessed our little family has been.

Last Sunday, my husband was lying down on the couch looking through a cookbook with a couple of my girls draped all over him. They were going about the very serious business of deciding what treat would grace our table that week.

Mint-chocolate layer cake? Nope.
Lemon meringue pie parfaits? Nope.
Chocolate mousse? Negative.

They came across a really beautiful photo of a fruit tart from The Roof Restaurant in Salt Lake City. And as is pretty typical of most things, the aesthetics won the day, and the dessert was chosen. (FYI: The Roof Restaurant is crazy-fancy, so I'd expect their desserts to be top-notch... and it was.)

I was actually short on an ingredient or two (heavy cream and whole milk), and had to make very minor modifications, but the result was still absolutely delicious.

I think I could have eaten the whole thing on my own... especially the pastry cream. That stuff was sooooo good. It took all my willpower to allow my daughters to eat the extra bits on the whisk and in the pot. My belly was bellowing at me to horde it for myself.

I should get an award or something.

This recipe is a little more intensive than most things I post, but give it a try. It really is worth the effort! We will definitely be making this again and again.

Fruit Tart
Printable Version

(Note: If you don't have the ingredients on hand for the crust, you can use a portion of your favorite sugar cookie recipe in place of the crust.)


INGREDIENTS
Crust
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. heavy cream
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup melted semisweet chocolate chips
Kiwis, blueberries, strawberries, mandarin oranges, or your favorite fruit or berries

Pastry Cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 cup whole milk (sim, 1%, and 2% works fine... it just turns out slightly thinner)
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla


DIRECTIONS
For the crust: In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and then add egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and cream. Mix together and beat until smooth. Add flour and mix well. Roll dough and put into well-greased, 9" fluted pan. (I don't own one. I used the bottom of a 10" cheesecake pan. If you don't care about how it looks, you could pretty much it on any baking surface, and it will be fine.) Bake at 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cool. Brush the top with melted chocolate and let cool.

For the pastry cream: Mix sugar, cornstarch, and milk together in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring continually, and then bring to a boil. Cook about 2 minutes until thick. To prevent cooking the eggs, mix the egg yolks with a small amount of hot mixture first, and then combine both mixtures together. Bring to a boil again, stirring continually. Remove from heat; add butter and vanilla and let cool.

Spread pastry cream on top of brushed chocolate inside tart crust.

To serve, decorate top of tart with any desired amount of your favorite fruit or berries.