Fruit tarts grace the windows of pastry shops around the world, only the fruits change. These tropical fruit tarts build on recipes we’ve already mastered to create a light, flavorful dessert with a wonderful tropical flair. The components can be made well in advance and then assembled when it’s time to eat!
Make the dough and tart shells as directed in the recipe. You can make either one larger tart or several smaller ones. If you only make a couple of individual tarts roll out the extra dough and cut in circles. Stack with parchment or plastic wrap in between and freeze. This way you will always have tart shells to be baked at a moments notice!
Follow the recipe for lemon curd as instructed. Simply substitute an equal amount of passion fruit juice for the lemon juice. I used fresh passion fruit and pushed the pulp through a strainer to extract as much juice as possible. For 1/2 cup of juice you will need about 6 passion fruits. The fruits should be wrinkled on the outside and have bright yellow/orange pulp.
Passion fruit is plentiful and inexpensive in Vietnam but if you are having trouble finding it or it is prohibitively expensive you can use passion fruit puree or juice instead. If the juice is sweetened with sugar or is cut with another juice such as apple to sweeten it, simply cut back on the sugar in the recipe. Passion fruits have a lovely tartness to them. You don’t want to cover that up with too much sugar!
There are many tropical fruits that will decorate the tops of these tarts nicely and, with the global distribution of food, many are readily available. Be sure to pick a nice mix of colors in your fruit selection. Many people are tempted to add in berries for color – don’t do it! While berries are lovely on tarts, tropical fruits have a distinctive nuance to them. What they lack in bright colors they more than make up for in flavor!
Here is a short list of fruits to choose from:
rambutan, passion fruit, pineapple, kiwi, dragonfruit, mango, coconut, longan,
mandarin, lychee, papaya, banana, mangosteen, carambola (star fruit)
Some of these are very familiar and some you may have never heard of. Experiment and enjoy new flavors and tastes!
