I love fruit tarts. I love the sweetness of bananas and crust contrasted with the tartness of the kiwis and tart glaze that traditionally lays across the top of the tart making it shine and glisten. I have always loved to try fruit tarts at different restaurants and coffee shops. I particularly like the fruit tart served at Flying Star Cafe. There's something about that fruit tart that speaks to my soul. But this time, I ventured into the world of baking and made my own.
I am not a baker. I am a cook. Being a cook is definitely not the same thing as being a baker. The last time I baked cakes I forgot to put eggs in the first one and the second one got stuck in the pan so I ended up frosting it in a child-like manner inside the pan and serving it as such.
But despite my past baking failures, I tried a fruit tart and it wasn't too shabby! I am sure that if you are a better baker than me, yours will come out to be quite heavenly.
The fruit tart that I made came from a New Dieter's Cookbook from somewhere in the 1990s.
This New Dieter's Cookbook, I am finding out, is not really very "diet" at all. But alas, it has amazing food potential scrawled on its crinkled pages.
The fruit tart was pretty simple to make (especially for a novice baker) and it turned out very well.
The ingredients:
1/3 cup all-purpose white flour
1/3 wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons of ice water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 cup orange juice
1 kiwi fruit peeled and sliced
3/4 cup thinly sliced banana
1 cup thinly sliced strawberries
How to create this nonsense:
First, pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Sift together the flours and sugar into a bowl. Cut in the margarine(I softened the margarine a little bit beforehand). Cut until crumbly. Sprinkle in the 2 tablespoons of ice water until you get a crumbling mixture (it is supposed to be a dryer crust). Form crust into a ball and place it on top of wax paper. Place another sheet of wax paper on top of the ball and roll pin until in the shape of a 10" diameter circle. Remove the top sheet of wax paper. Invert a pie dish on the crust and use the wax paper to flip the crust gently into the pie dish. I had to have my mom help me because 2 hands were not enough. Bake it in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
While the crust is baking, in a small sauce pan sift together the cornstarch and sugar. Add in the orange juice over medium heat and stir until the glaze becomes bubbly and thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
After the crust is done (which you can smell its sweet scent before you even take it out of the oven), arrange the cold fruit around the crust starting with kiwi slices in the middle, banana slices surrounding the kiwi and strawberries on the outside. Spoon on the glaze and either serve immediately or cover and chill for an hour before serving. I chose to chill mine first.
This was a wonderful little dessert and I added a couple of dollops of whipped cream on top of mine after I took this picture. The crust was very sweet but a little bit grainy due to the wheat flour. I suggest if you don't like grainy textures to substitute white flour for the 1/3 cup of whole-wheat. The glaze was very tangy, the tangiest I've had yet! But it tasted very good with the bananas, strawberries and kiwis. It is a very simple dessert that is great for a summer party! (Even though I made mine in winter!)
