The soft summer fruit tart is a fresh, delicious, and spectacular dessert, a simple cake to make that is prepared in no time. It takes just 1 hour to prepare the bases, which must cool completely to be assembled and decorated with lots of seasonal fruit.
For the cake, I used the recipe of my soft tart made with a “clever mold“, filled with custard and lots of fresh fruit. To preserve it longer I recommend glazing the fruit with gelatin otherwise prepare the base, wash and dry all the fruit well, and 30 minutes before serving decorate the cake and store it in the fridge.
I love the soft fruit tart, it’s one of my favorite desserts because the base is a soft cake with a texture similar to sponge cake but much lighter and definitely more aromatic, for me, who doesn’t love shortcrust pastry it’s perfect. I found the base so pleasant that I invented many variations by adding fruit puree to the batter, you can find them all in my collection Soft Tarts to Fill; in the cake I propose today you could easily use the raspberry, blueberry, or peach version.
To complete the dessert and give it an extra fruity note, I made a peach syrup, I cut two ripe peaches into very small cubes, put them in a bowl with sugar and lemon juice, and let them rest, then distributed them in the center of the cake before pouring the custard. Alternatively, you can blend the peaches or use peach juice or milk.
The fruit, needless to say, must be very fresh, firm, and sweet so that the finished cake can be kept for 3 days without problems.
Try my soft tarts:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 50 Minutes
- Portions: 10 People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop, Electric Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Summer, Spring, Summer
- Energy 198.71 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 32.08 (g) of which sugars 20.56 (g)
- Proteins 4.09 (g)
- Fat 6.91 (g) of which saturated 1.99 (g)of which unsaturated 4.59 (g)
- Fibers 1.82 (g)
- Sodium 12.20 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup peanut oil (or 70 g of soft butter)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 eggs (medium)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon zest (grated)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 70 g egg yolks
- 70 g sugar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp rice starch
- Half pod vanilla
- lemon zest (zest of half a lemon is enough)
- 2 nectarines (small and ripe)
- Half lemon
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 125 g raspberries
- 125 g blackberries
- 200 g blueberries
- 1 nectarine (large firm and sweet)
- to taste mint (fresh leaves)
Tools
- 2 Bowls
- 1 Scale
- 1 Electric beater
- 1 Cake pan for soft tart or clever mold 11 inches in diameter
- 1 Small bowl
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Hand whisk
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Baking dish rectangular
- Plastic wrap
Procedure
Sift the flour with the baking powder.
Pour the eggs into the bowl, add the sugar and beat them with electric whisks until they are fluffy and frothy.
Add half the flour while continuing to beat the mixture with the whisks, then add the oil.
Incorporate the remaining flour and finally add the milk, lemon zest, and vanilla.
Pour the batter into the greased and floured soft tart mold.Bake the cake in a preheated static oven at 338°F for about 20/25 minutes (the cooking time depends on the power of your oven).
Do the toothpick test to check the cooking, if necessary, extend it by a few minutes.
The soft tart is ready, remove it from the oven, wait a few minutes, and turn it over on a cooling rack. Let it cool completely.
Open the vanilla pod, extract the seeds and put them in the saucepan along with the milk, also add the pod and the zest of half a lemon in pieces.
Bring the milk to a boil, turn off the heat, and let it cool slightly.
Break the eggs, put the yolks in a bowl, add the sugar and mix.
Incorporate the cornstarch and rice starch, mixing with a whisk to thoroughly blend the mixture.Remove the vanilla pod and lemon zest from the milk, pour it over the eggs in a thin stream while continuing to mix with the whisk.
Transfer the mixture to the saucepan, place it on the heat, and thicken the cream for a few minutes, stirring it continuously with the whisk (for perfect cooking, just reach 183°F).
Pour the cream into the baking dish, cover it with plastic wrap in contact, and put it in the fridge to cool for 2 hours.
The custard is ready, before using it, mix it with a whisk to make it shiny and silky.
If you want to save time, you can prepare the microwave custard following the recipe I learned from courses with Luca Montersino.
Wash 2 small peaches or one large one and dry them.
Cut them into small pieces, put them in a bowl, add the juice of half a lemon and the sugar (adjust the sugar based on the sweetness of the peaches, if they are very sour add more), mix well and let them rest for 1 hour, a syrup will form that we will use as syrup.If you want to speed up the process, you can substitute the syrup with fruit juice or milk.
Place the soft tart on a dessert plate, moisten the center of the tart with the peach juice, and also add the diced peaches.
Spread the custard over the peaches and level it with the back of a spoon.
Place it in the fridge while you prepare the fruit for decoration.Gently wash the berries under cold water, place them on a few sheets of paper towels, and let them dry. Also, wash the mint leaves.
Wash the peach, dry it, and cut it into thin slices.
Decorate the surface of the cake alternating peach slices and berries, complete with a few fresh mint leaves.
The soft summer fruit tart is ready. Let the cake rest in the fridge for 1 hour before serving.
If you do not consume it during the day, I suggest glazing the fruit with gelatin.
Tips
Storage
You can store the soft summer fruit tart for 3 days in the refrigerator, I recommend glazing the fruit with gelatin to keep it fresh longer.
If you consume it during the day, there is no need to glaze the fruit with gelatin.
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