Fruit Tart for Mother's Day - originally posted on

I asked my mom what she wanted me to make her for Mother's Day.  At first, she asked me to sew her something.  What?!  I gently steered her in a culinary direction and one thing she requested was a fruit tart.  I haven't made a fruit tart for a long time, so I had to find a recipe.  This was exactly what I was looking for. 
I made some changes, but these recipes are great.  The sweet pastry crust is a super easy, cookie like pastry that you could use for tarts or any kind of fruit pie.  The custard recipe is a good basic pudding recipe that you could flavour with what ever you have on hand and serve in small bowls.  Or use for trifle.
Sweet Pastry Crust:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1 dash salt

Cream the butter and sugar together until creamy.  Add the egg and keep beating until smooth.  Add the flour and salt, then stir only until combined.  Pat the dough into a disc and refrigerate for about an hour.  Pat the dough into a tart pan.  You don't even need to roll it out, really.  Put it back in the fridge for about half an hour.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Lightly prick bottom of pastry crust with the tines of a fork (this will prevent the dough from puffing up as it bakes). Place tart pan on a larger baking pan and bake crust for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and continue to bake the crust for about 15 minutes or until dry and lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely before filling. Can be covered and stored for a few days.

Custard:
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until smooth.  Stir the flour and cornstarch together, then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan bring the milk and vanilla just to boiling (just until milk starts to foam up.) Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) Then pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 - 60 seconds until it becomes thick. Remove from heat. Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. If it's lumpy, pour it through a strainer into your bowl.  Cool to room temperature. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat or whisk before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Pour the custard into the crust, then arrange fresh fruit on top.  Put it back into the fridge for a few hours.  You can create a glaze, if you like, but heating up equal parts of strained apricot jam and water.  Brush the top with a pastry brush.  This is what pastry chefs do to make it look shiny.

Fresh and delicious!