This can be a very quick tart if you buy the pastry but perhaps you’d like to experiment with homemade inverted puff?  It’s totally worth it, beautiful, light and flaky with very little actual work.  After you’ve baked the pastry base lather on a thin layer of quark or fresh soft white cheese and the seasonal fruit of your choice.  Scatter slivers of candied ginger.  Then back in the oven till the fruit are lovely and juicy.  The sliced plums, raspberries and blueberries just burst with flavour on this delicious and light gingery fruit and quark tart.

The recipe

This was supposed to be an apricot streusel tart inspired by the one we made on our Cordon Bleu course, but … things happen.  One, it’s not apricot season and I wanted fresh fruit.  Two, I tried streusel on a prototype grapefruit tart but found it wasn’t baking fast enough and was complicating my life.  Plus serious research is required into making my streusel more attractive and less like little lumps of playdough. 🙂

So I ditched the streusel and found yummy seasonal fruit.  But something was missing.  Spices!  Enter the candied ginger.  I kept the idea of fresh white soft cheese on the base, but increased quantities and used 0% fat Quark, which is meant to have health benefits!  You can read about it in an article What is Quark and is it healthy?  Finally, I used my puff pastry of choice:  inverted, with its beautiful rise and flake!

Timings

Homemade puff pastry (optional, you can use good quality all-butter shop-bought): about 35-40 minutes work, best spread over two days but can be made in one day.  Assembling the tart:  rolling out and shaping the circle – 10 minutes (refrigerate at least 40-50 mins before baking);  preparing and arranging the toppings on the tart – 10 minutes.  Total:  20 minutes work using shop-bought pastry and 55-60 minutes using homemade inverted puff pastry.

Preparation 

• find a 20cm/8inch diametre plate or cake tin and a baking tray.
• Cut a circle of baking paper 5cm/2inch wider diametre than the plate/tin.

Ingredients

• 200g/7oz puff pastry – If you’re using homemade please go to my inverted puff pastry recipe page.
• 65-70g/a quarter cup Quark or fresh soft white cheese
• 2.5-3 plums, cut into slices of medium thickness
• 8-12 raspberries
• 20-25 blueberries
• 1 or 2 balls of candied ginger (in syrup), cut into thin slices, optional

Method

1. Lightly flour your work surface and roll out your pastry till it’s 2-3mm thick.  Place the pastry on your circle of baking paper.
2. Place the 20cm/8inch plate/tin over the pastry and cut around it with a sharp knife to make your circle.
3. Shape the sides of your circle to form a raised edge.  Do this your own way or try the method demonstrated on my page Shaping and baking a puff pastry tart shell (there’s a video demo).
4. Prick the base of the tart shell (not the raised sides) all over with a fork, right through to the bottom.
5. Place your tart shell in the fridge for at least 30-60 minutes.  During this time preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F (static, non-convection oven) or 180°C/350°F (fan-assisted).
6. After chilling your shell, bake in the middle of the oven 15-20 minutes till your shell is light brown and lightly baked.  If the pastry is rising in the middle then wait till it’s been 10 mins in the oven and use a fork to prick and flatten, then continue to bake.
7. Take out of the oven and lower the oven to 180°C/350°F (static oven) or 160°C/320°F (fan/convection oven).
8. Spread the quark in a thin layer on the base of the tart.
9. Arrange your fruit artistically over the quark then the slivers of candied ginger.
10.  Put back in the oven and bake another 25 – 30 minutes, until the pastry border is a nice brown colour and the fruit look baked and juicy.  Be flexible about the timing as it depends on your oven and tart.  Take off the baking tray and cool on a wire rack.

Eating and storing your tart

Serve this tart warm or at room temperature.  Puff pastry is always best on the same day but I’ve found this tart is also delicious up to the third day and is fine stored in an airtight tupperware in the fridge.

And don’t worry if your tart has an identity crisis and thinks it’s a pizza.  Just let it know it’s truly delicious and fruity.  🙂

Do have a slice of this yummy gingery fruit and quark tart.

Farewell for now sweet reader and wishing you a lovely week ahead!  Happy baking and eating! 🙂 x