French rose and fruit tart recipe

Details

• Cuisine: French
• Recipe Type: Dessert
• Difficulty: Easy
• Preparation Time: 90 mins
• Cooking Time: 30 mins
• Serves: 8

Step-by-step

1. First, make the sweet shortcrust pastry (or use 300g ready-made pastry). Place all the dry ingredients in the bowl of your food processor fitted with a blade and give them a quick pulse. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Tip the mixture into a large mixing bowl and add the egg and water.
2. Bring together with your hands and then gently knead the mixture a couple of times to make a smooth pastry. Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge until required. Make sure you take it out of the fridge 45 minutes before you want to use it to make it easier to roll (do the same for ready-made).
3. Next line and blind bake the tart tin: grease the tin before lining it. Line the bottom of the tin with a round piece of non-stick baking parchment, drawing around the loose bottom as a guide. Leave a small tab of parchment sticking out of the side of the circle – this will give you something to hold as you slide the tart from the parchment.
4. Forget baking parchment and ceramic beans for blind baking; use a good-quality clingfilm and rice or mung beans instead. The clingfilm does not melt in the oven and filling it with rice or mung beans gets into every nook and cranny. The clingfilm is non-stick too; you can just lift it out after blind baking with the rice or beans.
5. Preheat the oven to 190°C fan/210°C/375°F/gas 6½. Flour your work surface lightly but evenly with plain flour. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 3mm/ 1/8 inch. Keep lifting and rotating the pastry to stop it sticking to your work surface. Use more flour as required. I sprinkle some on the pastry and rub it across the surface to keep it non-stick.
6. Place your tin gently on the pastry and cut around it, about 6cm/2½ inches larger than the tin. Sprinkle the surface of the pastry with a little flour and rub it in gently with your hand. Fold the pastry over on itself twice so you end up with a quarter wedge. Place the point of the wedge in the centre of the tin and simply unfold it. Keep an offcut of pastry on one side.
7. Gently ease the pastry into the sides of the tin. Dip the offcut of pastry in flour and use it to gently press the pastry into the sides of the tin. Do not trim off the overhanging pastry. Prick the base of the pastry all over with a fork. Place four sheets of clingfilm loosely over the tart tin, and press them down together into the pastry. Gather the excess clingfilm around the tin. Fill the tin with rice or mung beans and bake for 25 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Gently lift out the clingfilm with the rice or beans and put them into a large bowl to cool before you store them.
9. Put the tart tin back in the oven and bake for a further 6-8 minutes until the pastry base looks dry and pale golden. Sometimes the base of the pastry will inflate during this phase of baking. If you see this happening, open the oven and prick the base in the centre with a toothpick to let the air escape. Plug that hole with a small ball of raw pastry as soon as the pastry comes out of the oven.
10. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 20 minutes. Trim off the excess pastry by running a sharp smooth knife around the top of the tin. Leave the case in the tin while you assemble the tart.
11. Next brush the base of the pastry case with melted chocolate: take 60g of dark chocolate and melt it in a microwave or a bowl set over a pan of boiling water. Using a pastry brush apply a layer of the melted chocolate evenly over the base of the pastry case but not up the sides. Place in the fridge to set.
12. Pour the milk into a large saucepan. Place the eggs and sugar in a large heatproof bowl and use an electric hand whisk until pale and fluffy. Then whisk in the cornflour and rose water. Heat the milk until just boiling. Pour slowly into the egg mixture while whisking all the time with a balloon whisk until well mixed and smooth.
13. Return the mixture to the saucepan over a medium heat, whisk continuously for 3 minutes while the mixture bubbles. Pour back into the heatproof bowl and cover with clingfilm, making sure the clingfilm is touching the surface of the crème pâtissière to prevent a skin forming. Leave on one side until cold.
14. Finally assemble and top the tart using the sliced and peeled fruits and arrange them in the shape of a flower.
15. Leave the pastry case in the tin to support it while you fill and decorate it. Take the cold crème pâtissière and whisk it using an electric hand whisk until light and fluffy or use your worktop mixer. Fill the pastry case evenly with it.
16. Place in the fridge to set slightly while you prepare the fruits. Peel and slice the fruits and then arrange on top of the crème pâtissière to look like a flower. Use some mint leaves too for a splash of extra colour. Add a tablespoon of water to the apricot jam and warm gently to make it runny. Brush an even layer gently over all the fruit.