This vegan fruit tart is a fresh and delicious dessert without the fuss. If you've ever eyed up those gorgeous glossy fruit flans or strawberry tarts in your local bakery, you'll be surprised at how easily you can make them homemade.
A delicious buttery crisp crust filled with whipped custard cream and topped with plenty of fresh seasonal fruit. This delicious fruit tart looks sophisticated and fancy like straight from a Parisian bakery, but it is such an easy dessert to make at home.
Traditional French fruit tart or its Italian counterpart "Crostata di Frutta" are usually filled with pastry cream (creme patisserie) which is a thick and rich custard. But we're making a cheats version here by using coconut custard and coconut whipping cream as the base for the dairy-free custard filling.
Here’s what’s to love about this recipe
- Easy to make
- Eggless and dairy-free
- No-cook eggless custard cream filling
- The perfect dessert for spring and summer
- Fully adaptable to use seasonal fruits and berries
This recipe is a paid collaboration with Natures Charm, all views are my own.
Ingredients needed:
Coconut custard & coconut whipping cream: The sweet custard filling for this vegan fresh fruit tart is made with Natures Charm coconut whipping cream and coconut custard, which makes it incredibly easy to whip together. An important step in this recipe is to chill the can of coconut cream in the fridge the night before making this recipe, the coconut custard can be used at room temperature.
Fresh fruit: You can get really creative with the toppings for this vegan fruit tart. Fresh seasonal berries like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are great. Other fruits that work well include kiwis, nectarines, peaches, mandarins, etc. You could also stick to a single fruit if preferred.
Plain flour
Vegan butter: This vegan French fruit tart calls for vegan block butter, not the spreadable kind from a tub. I usually use flora or naturli.
Sugar: For the vegan shortcrust pastry, I recommend using caster sugar (superfine sugar), but regular cane sugar will also work well. The filling uses powdered sugar to sweeten it, but this is optional as you may find the coconut custard filling is already sweet enough as is. I don't recommend using liquid sweeteners such as maple syrup as these will interfere with the consistency of the cream filling.
Apricot jam: Apricot preserve is melted down into a syrup consistency and used to glaze the fresh fruit tart to give it a beautiful shine. It also adds sweetness to the custard tart.
Soy milk: This brings the pastry together to form a dough, you can use any plant-based milk of your choice here.
How to make a vegan fresh fruit tart
(Full ingredient quantities and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post)
Making the vegan tart crust
To make the pastry you'll simply add all of the pie crust ingredients (flour, vegan butter, sugar, sea salt, and soy milk) to a food processor and blitz for a few seconds until they form a dough consistency.
Gently knead the dough into a ball, wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for half an hour. It's important to chill the pastry before baking as it helps it to relax and prevents shrinking. Once chilled, roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface to a circumference slightly larger than the tart pan.
With the help of a rolling pin, gently transfer the pastry onto your rolling pin and place it on top of the tart tin. Use your fingers to work it into the sides of the tin and then poke holes on top using a fork. This helps to evenly bake your pastry.
Blind-baking the tart will prevent a soggy bottom, which would potentially ruin the entire tart. It also prevents the base of the pie from puffing up during baking.
To blind-bake, scrunch up the parchment paper and place it on top of the pastry, then fill with tart shell with baking beads or dried beans. You'll then blind bake the tart for 15 minutes before removing the parchment and baking beads and continuing to bake until lightly golden.
Making the custard cream filling
This is by far the easiest step of the recipe. Unlike set custard fillings that use agar-agar like in this rhubarb custard tart, this custard filing uses just 2 main ingredients.
Simply beat the chilled coconut whipping cream for a couple of minutes until fluffy, using an electric whisk if possible. Then you'll add the coconut custard and whisk again to combine the ingredients.
At this stage, you can taste the custard cream to see if it's sweet enough to your liking. If not, add in the powdered sugar and whisk again until evenly incorporated into the whipped cream.
Transfer the custard cream to the tart shell, using a spoon or rubber spatula to smooth out the top before transferring it to the fridge to chill for a couple of hours. This will help the ingredients to firm up a little and give you a better base for adding your fresh fruits!
Assembling the vegan fruit tart
Now comes the really fun part, once you've decided what fruits you're going to use you can decide on a pattern to decorate the tart. Classic fruit for French fruit tart recipes will usually include fresh berries, mandarin slices, and kiwis. Make sure you wash the fruit and fresh berries well and allow them about 30 minutes to dry on a clean kitchen towel.
For the berry fruit tart pictured, I started off with sliced strawberries on the outside followed by kiwi slices, blueberries, and raspberries.
Lastly, using a pastry brush, lightly brush the fruits with some apricot glaze or apple jelly to give them that gorgeous shine similar to what you'd see in a French patisserie. To make the glaze simply heat the apricot jam in a small saucepan over medium heat until it melts, you can add a little water if the jelly is too thick.
Storage instructions
This vegan fresh fruit tart needs to be stored in the fridge. Place it in an airtight container or cover it with plastic wrap before refrigerating. It will well last for a couple of days. This is depending on the quality of fruit you use (make sure they are not at their use-by date by the time you garnish the tart).
Frequently asked questions
I do not recommend freezing this tart as the fruit can become mushy once defrosted.
To make this recipe gluten-free, I'd recommend using the pastry recipe from my pineapple coconut panna cotta tart.
This tart is nut-free, just check the ingredients in the vegan butter you're using to be sure. Flora plant butter is nut-free.
More in vegan tarts and pies
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Description
Ingredients
Crust
- 160 g (1 ¼ cups) plain flour
- 100 g (3.5 oz) vegan butter
- 25 g (2 tbsp) superfine sugar (caster sugar), or cane sugar
- ¼ tsp (¼ tsp) sea salt
- 1 tbsp (1 tbsp) soy milk, or alternative plant-based milk
Filling
- 400 g (14 oz) coconut whipping cream, chill the night before, I use Nature's Charm
- 250 g (8.8 oz) coconut custard , I use Nature's Charm
- 30 g (¼ cup) powdered sugar, optional
Topping
- 12-15 (12-15) fresh strawberries
- 3 (3) fresh kiwis
- 16-20 (16-20) fresh blueberries
- 7 (7) fresh raspberries
- 80 g (⅓ cup) apricot jam, or apple jelly
Instructions
Preparation
- Before getting started make sure that you chill the can of coconut whipping cream the night before.
Crust
- In your food processor, combine the flour, vegan butter, sugar, salt, and soya milk until the ingredients stick together to form a ball of dough. Gently knead the dough into a smooth ball and wrap the dough in cling-film or place in an airtight container and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 180°C (356°F). Lightly grease the base and sides of a round 9" tart tin with some oil or vegan butter, if desired you can also line the base with parchment paper.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the chilled dough so that it is an inch or so larger than the circumference of the tart tin. Use the rolling pin to carefully lift the pastry over the tin and use your fingers to gently ease the pastry into the side of the tin. Use a knife to cut around the edges if needed and try to get the sides as even and smooth as possible. Pierce several holes into the base of the pastry using a fork.
- Take a sheet of parchment paper and cut it into a circle slightly larger than the tart. Rest it on top of the pastry and fill the base with dried beans, rice, lentils, or baking beads. Blind bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the beans/baking beads and bake for another 15 minutes until light golden brown. Place the tin on a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.
Filling
- Add the chilled coconut cream to a large bowl and using an electric whisk (if possible) beat for a couple of minutes until it forms stiff peaks. Add in the custard and whisk until combined. Taste test the mxiture, and if needed add the powdered sugar before whisking again to combine.
- Transfer the custard mixture into the tart shell and use a spatula or spoon to smooth out the top. Place the tart in the frige to chill for 2 hours. Meanwhile, prepare the fruit.
Topping
- Wash all of the fruit very well and sit it on top of a clean tea towel to dry completely for about 30 minutes. Cut the tops of the strawberries and peel the kiwis before slicing them.
- Add the apricot jam/apple jelly to a small saucepan and place on medium heat. Stir continuously, the jam should thin out and become glossy. If the mixture is too thick, add a few tablespoons of water to it and mix well.
- Arrange the fruits on top of the tart, starting with the outside edge and working in a circular motion. Lastly, carefully brush the fruits with the apricot glaze using a pastry brush.
Storage
- Place it in an airtight container or cover it with plastic wrap before refrigerating. It will well last for a couple of days. This is depending on the quality of fruit you use (make sure they are not at their use-by date by the time you garnish the tart). I do not recommend freezing.
Nutrition
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