Super Awesome 10 Inch Mega Fruit Tart

Mummy didn't want a cake for Mum's Day so I decided to do her a Super Awesome 10 Inch Mega Fruit Tart! This was a recipe I did earlier on, the Mini Fruit Tarts. I'm really pleased at how pretty this looked and how good it actually tasted even though the custard was a lil' on the milkier side!

This took me about 4 hours to bake and put together 2 Super Awesome 10 Inch Mega Fruit Tart but effectively if you're just aiming to get one done, it should take only 2 hours (: Please halve the recipe if you're intending to just bake 1 tart!

I used the oven to bake this tart but I did try the small tarts with my Happy Call Pan and they baked well even though the tart was not totally brown. It also took a lesser time to bake the tarts but the only limitation is that the maximum size the Happy Call Pan can bake is about 5 inches. If you are baking on the Happy Call Pan, bake the tart on medium-low fire on 20 minutes or till pie crust is completely cooked. If you are baking a 5 inch tart, do use tools such as inverted shallow cupcake cups to "prop up" the tart to prevent 'almost' direct contact of heat. This will prevent the base of your tart from burning before it is cooked.

Super Awesome 10 Inch Mega Fruit Tart Recipe

This yields 2 10 inch fruit tarts

Ingredients:

PIE BASE

500g cake flour

150g icing sugar, sieved

250g butter, softened

150g whole eggs (about 3 medium sized eggs)

Some plain flour (5 tbsp or so)

Some beans for bind baking

(Rice, black beans, red beans, green beans.. any of these will do)

CUSTARD CREAM

10tbsp corn flour

5 egg yolks

12 1/3 tbsp sugar

500ml milk

GELATIN FRUIT GLAZE

100ml apple juice

2 tbsp gelatin

FRUITS

A punnet of strawberries

5 kiwis

A box of blueberries

1/2 can of canned peach

2 laffa limes

Steps:

PIE BASE

Pie base ingredients.

Sieve the icing sugar. It should weigh 150g after sifting. Add the softened butter to the icing sugar.

Whisk with an electric mixer. Mix well.

Add 1 egg and mix well.

Add another egg and mix well. Ensure that each egg is well incorporated before next egg is added. 

3rd egg! Add the water in at this stage.

Add in the cake flour and mix well!

The mixture after well incorporated.

Using a plastic bag or cling wrap, contain the dough.

Covere the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow dough to set.

My dough station. Line the base of the pie tin to prevent sticking just for extra precaution! (: Set aside some flour to prevent dough from being too sticky when working with it. Preheat the oven to 170 degree Celsius. 

Flour the surface of your workstation. I used a flexible chopping board.

I was supposed to roll the dough "Snow White" style but guess my skill wasn't good enough! XD I ended up pinching the dough by playing a big ball of dough in the middle of the pan before flattening it. Slowly pinch and press the dough into place, ensuring that it is as even as possible. Refrigerate in the freezer for 5 minutes to let the dough "set". Poke the base of the tart with a fork to allow air to escape during it's session in the oven. 

Next, using the bind baking method, we'll need some beans. I used some random black beans I found in the kitchen. Rice, green beans, red beans all work.. just that it cannot be consumed after being used for bind baking. I stored mine in a dry container for future bind baking use (:

Place some parchment paper/greaseproof paper on the tart and place the beans on top of it. Bake for 10 minutes before removing the beans and greaseproof paper. Bake for another 20 minutes or till golden brown. 

This is my first attempt at carving a laffa lime with my new fruit knife. 

My laffa lime rose! (:

The tart! Leave to cool.

CUSTARD CREAM 

The ingredients.

While the tarts are being baked, prepare the custard cream by separating the yolks and whites.

Add the corn flour to the egg yolks.

Mix well with a hand whisk.

Add the sugar and mix well.

Mix well!

Heat up the milk but do not allow it to boil.

Using a ladle, add 2 ladles of warm milk to the mixture and mix well. DO NOT dump all the milk in at once as it'll cause lumps. Add 2 more ladles of milk and mix well. Repeat till' milk is all incorporated in the mixture. Mix well to remove any lumps from the corn flour.

Pour the entire mixture back into the pot and bring the mixture back to boil on low fire. I did not pour in the entire mixture as I left the bits of corn flour in the mixing bowl as I did not want the lumps. Stir till' mixture thickens. I used a pot that I can use my metal whisk in as quite a fair bit of whisking is needed to remove all the lumps and also to prevent the custard cream from burning. Stir constantly.

Remove from heat when mixture has thickened. 

Pour it into a clean mixing bowl and cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate the custard cream for at least 30 minutes. Stir the custard cream before use.

The baked tart! (:

Round two's tart ready for baking!

When tart has completely cooled, invert and remove from the tart pan. Place the tart on a case base. 

GELATIN FRUIT GLAZE

The ingredients.

Bring the fruit juice to boil on medium heat. I used apple juice. You can choose any flavour of juice but bear in mind that a cloudy juice will affect the colour and clarity of the glaze.

Add the gelatin and mix well till gelatin dissolves.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

My assembly station.

Slice the fruits!

I placed the custard cream in the piping bag for piping but you can also do it with a spatula freehand. 

Using a brush, apply a thin layer of glaze on the insides of the tart to prevent sogging due to the custard cream.

Pipe sufficient custard cream till the height of the sides of the tart.

Arrange the strawberries in an overlapped manner on the external 'ring' of the tart. 

Add sliced kiwis on the next 'ring'.

Add the rest of the fruits according to this picture or any design that you fancy (: Using a brush, apply the gelatin glaze on the fruits to prevent the fruits from drying out. Refrigerate cake till' ready to serve. You may want to use a kitchen knife instead of a plastic knife to cut the tart.

This is a slice of the beautiful tart and I'm really glad that my mummy loved it! (: The other fruit tart was baked for my cell group members and I'm really glad that I had real positive feedback from them!

This is once of those super awesome looking tarts that I will bake more often! (:

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: