Fresh Fruit Tart
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This fresh fruit tart is perfect for your patriotic celebrations this summer! The delicious, colorful, tart can be made with a grain-free crust, a shortcrust dough or graham cracker crust. It’s a beautiful way to highlight seasonal fruit.
I love any kind of dessert with fruit and this easy fruit tart is no exception. It’s not too sweet, with a tangy lemony filling and is a very adaptable recipe. Use whatever fresh fruit is available! (This recipe was originally published on December 11th, 2011)
The most difficult part of the recipe is letting the pie chill for a couple of hours before you decorate it, so be sure to prepare it in the morning if you plan on serving it later in the day
The filling is simply lemon curd and cream cheese. That’s it! No added sugar, other than what is the lemon curd. It’s the perfect filling for fresh fruit, which doesn’t need to be masked by an overly sweet filling.
Ingredients for fresh fruit tart
I’ve made this easy fruit tart several times, with a couple of different types of crust. A shortbread crust, which is more like cookie dough and a little to sweet for my taste. There’s pie dough, which won’t be as sweet as the short dough crust. And then there’s graham cracker crust, which is the original recipe from Nigella Lawson. My latest incarnation is this nut-based, grain-free crust, which also makes it gluten free.
For the grain free crust
- 3 cups walnuts and almonds, (you can use pecans and hazelnuts as well)
- 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 dates, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes, then pit
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
For the filling
- 2 8-ounce bars cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup lemon curd, (8 ounces) at room temperature
- 1 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom, 2 inches deep
- Assorted fresh fruit (the amount of fruit will vary depending on how you’d like to arrange)
- 2 Tablespoons Apricot Jam,
- 2 Tablespoons water
How to make this fruit tart recipe
I’ve made this easy fruit tart several times, with a couple of different types of crust.
I’ve tried a shortbread crust, which is more like cookie dough and a little to sweet for my taste. There’s pie dough, which won’t be as sweet as the short dough crust. And then there’s graham cracker crust, which is the original recipe from Nigella Lawson. My latest incarnation is this nut-based, grain-free crust, which also makes it gluten free.
For the gluten-free nut crust
- Soak dates in hot or warm water 5 minutes, then pit.
- In a food processor, fitted with blade, pulse nuts, butter, dates and salt until a dough forms.
- Press dough into bottom and sides of the pan. Trim excess dough.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Press dough into a greased tart pan with removable bottom.
- Blind bake for 12-15 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Filling
- In a clean processor bowl, or in the bowl of an electric mixer, process the cream cheese and lemon curd until smooth.
- Spread it into the bottom of the chilled tart crust, covering the base evenly.
Finishing the fruit tart
- Wash and slice the fruit.
- Spread the filling onto the cooled bottom of the crust.
- Arrange fruit in a pattern starting with center and moving outward.
- To achieve a bakery quality finish, use a pastry brush to apply a thin layer of apricot glaze before chilling.
- Wrap well with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Apricot glaze
- Heat 2 Tablespoons apricot preserves or jam and 3 Tablespoons water in a small saucepan over medium heat, until jam is melted and any lumps disappear.
Alternate crust options
The graham cracker crust is also a no-bake option.
- If you’d like to make this fruit tart with the original graham cracker crust, follow these instructions:
- Pulse 27 sheets of graham crackers and one stick (8 Tablespoons) of unsalted butter in a food processor until it resembles sand.
- Press into the sides and bottom of a tart pan.
- Chill 10 to 15 minutes.
- Follow the recipe below for filling and finish
Fruit options
Don’t limit this showstopper dessert to just berries. It’s the ideal base for a variety of your favorite fruits from and kiwi slices to stone fruit
More French fruit tarts:
More patriotic July desserts:
Gluten free and grain free desserts:
Grain Free Fresh Berry Cake or Strawberry Fool.
Fresh Berry Fruit Tart
Equipment
- 1 loose-bottomed 10-inch fluted tart pan 2 inches deep
Ingredients
Grain-Free Crust
- 3 cups walnuts and almonds, (you can use pecans and hazelnuts as well)
- 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 dates, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes, then pit
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Lemon Filling
- 2 8-ounce bars cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup lemon curd, (8 ounces) at room temperature
- 1 lb. assorted fresh fruit washed and sliced
Apricot Glaze
- 2 Tablespoons apricot preserves or jam,
- 2 Tablespoons water
Instructions
Grain-free crust
- Soak dates in hot or warm water 5 minutes, then pit.
- In a food processor, fitted with blade, pulse nuts, butter, dates and salt until a dough forms.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Press dough into a greased tart pan with removable bottom. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until crust is golden.
Lemon Filling
- In a clean processor bowl, process the cream cheese and lemon curd and spread it into the bottom of the chilled tart crust, covering the base evenly.
Finishing tart
- Arrange the fruit gently (so it doesn’t sink in too much) on top of the lemony cream cheese.
- Refrigerator the tart, preferably overnight, or for at least 4 hours. It does need to get properly cold in order to set enough for the tart to be unmolded and sliced easily.
Apricot Glaze
- For the glaze: mix 2 Tablespoons apricot jam and 2 Tablespoons water in a small sauce pan and cook over low heat, stirring until jam is melted and thin enough to brush over fruit. Add more water if necessary.
Seriously gorgeous!
I love that you don’t have to bake the crust. I have homemade lemon curd sitting in my refrigerator and I was wondering what to do with it, now I know. I can’t wait to make this.
Hi Cathy! Thanks for stopping by! Great to see you at camp this weekend.
How beautiful and delicious! You can’t go wrong with fruit and cream cheese.
Thanks Jennifer! Sorry I just saw your comment! cynthia
Lemon curd and cream cheese? I LOVE this tart, Cynthia! Thank you so much for sharing it with us at Treasure Box Tuesday- I have posted it on G+ this afternoon! 🙂
Thank you for sharing Joy!
Perfect summer dessert
Such a lovely tart. Anything with graham crackers and lemon curd has to be divine.
Melissa, I agree! I like that you can make the fruit in any pattern you choose too!
Oh wow….what a easy, cool,refreshing yes beautiful dessert! I will be making this for sure! Thank you for taking the time to link up at Party in Your PJs, we hope you join us again tonight when the party goes live at 7pm CDT
Kim, thanks for stopping by! I definitely will! Thank you!
Just pinned and will be sharing on FB as one of our great features this week at Freedom Fridays!!!
Hugs and thanks so much for sharing!!
Thank you for stopping by Evelyn!
Love me some berries!
A perfect no-bake dessert and it’s pretty to boot!
Absolutely beautiful! Summer fruit tarts are so pretty, and satisfy my sweet tooth perfectly!
Really beautiful and perfect for the 4th! I’m not much of a baker, but it looks easy enough even for me!
How fun! I could totally make this for 4th of July
I love a pretty tart, and this one is GORG!
This tart is gorgeous, Cynthia! Desserts like this are my favorite in the summer!
Oh wow, this tart is beautiful! Perfect for a cookout this weekend!
So pretty! Has me ready for the long weekend ahead,
This tart is so pretty! So perfect for Memorial day!
This is just the prettiest tart I’ve seen! It’s beautiful! I love all the berries we get in Summer, they are so pretty to photograph and you can make amazing patterns with them on desserts! I love nothing more than a fresh fruit tart on a warm Summer’s night!
I’d love this with a cookie crust! How fun!!
So delicious and colourful looking with all the fresh fruit! Love the nut and date crust too. Pinning this one.
Thank you Marie!
This tart is simply perfect! I love that the crust is grain free! Looks absolutely gorgeous and perfect as 4th of July dessert ♥
Yes, it’s nice to have options for everyone. Thank you Natalie!
That looks amazing, loving the filling but I have to say that crust sounds jaw-droppingly good!
Thank you Brian. The crust is so good, you won’t miss the graham cracker crust.
I’m all about berry desserts in the summer and this one looks just perfect! Saving this for my next upcoming barbecue!
Me too…so much lighter than chocolate.