Fruit Tartlets with vanilla pastry cream are like little bites of dessert heaven!
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My husband is a sucker for Mexican sweet breads made with this luscious cream. Can you blame the guy?
Buttery cups filled with a light cream sauce and topped with ripe, fresh fruit. Insanely delicious!
Table of Contents
Ingredients
For the Tartlet Crusts
- All – purpose flour
- Unsalted butter
- Egg
- Powdered sugar
- Milk
- Salt
For the Vanilla Pastry Cream
- Egg yolks
- Milk
- Powdered sugar
- Cornstarch
- Salt
- Vanilla bean
How to Make the Tartlet Shells
- In the bowl, blender, or mixer, combine flour, cubed cold butter, egg, pinch of salt, and milk. Mix until the dough starts to come together. If necessary, add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a soft dough. Form the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Be sure to use really cold butter. This will ensure a flakey crust. I sometimes freeze the butter. It helps keep the dough cold when kneading.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Roll out the dough to about ⅛ inch thick.
- Cut circles using a round cookie cutter (about 3 inches in diameter).
Not interested in making the dough from scratch? Skip this step and use a store-bought pie dough. However, the texture will be different.
If you like this recipe, you’ll also like Strawberry Cream Cheese Pastry.
- Place the circles in a mini muffin pan.
- Prick the bottom of each shell with a fork and crimp the edges of the shell with a fork as shown in the photo.
- Place paper cupcake liners on top and fill with rice or lentils, whichever you have on hand. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.
- Let them cool completely.
If you are serving these at a party, you can do this step up to 3 days ahead of time.
How do you keep fruit tarts from getting soggy? To prevent the tart shells from becoming soggy, bake as instructed. Then 2 minutes before they are ready, take them out and brush egg white on the inside. This will help seal the crust.
How To Make Vanilla Pastry Cream
- Scrape out the vanilla bean from inside the pod and add to a saucepan with milk.
- Heat the milk over medium heat until it begins to steam. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until smooth.
- Slowly pour about half of the warm milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
Whisk constantly and pour slowly to prevent curdling.
- Return the tempered egg mixture to the saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the cream thickens and comes to a gentle boil.
- Let it cook for another minute or so, then remove from heat.
Let it cool completely before filling up the tartlets.
🍓 Assembling
- Once the pastry cream is cooled, spoon or pipe it into the tart shells.
- Decorate the tarts with fresh fruit. Let it rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Serve and enjoy!
What fruit to use is totally up to you and whatever is available at your local grocery store. Strawberries, blueberries, a dusting of powdered sugar are all great options. Or add a sprinkle of chocolate shavings for a fancy touch.
Storage Instructions
Place any leftovers in the fridge and in an airtight container. Consume within 3 days. Take them out of the fridge when ready to serve.
🥖 Mexican Bakeries
- At Mexican bakeries, you will see these labeled as “Cubiletes de Crema Pastelera” or “tartaletas de crema pastelera.”
- Crema Pastelera, or vanilla pastry cream, is a common ingredient in Mexican sweet breads. Here, we filled cups, but it is also used as a filling for empanadas, heart-shaped puff pastry, or whatever the baker’s heart desired that day.
🍰 More Mexican Sweet Breads
These adorable Fruit Tartlets with vanilla pastry cream are so incredibly yummy. The light yet creamy filling and crumbly crust are hard to resist!
😋 Hungry for More
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Fruit Tartlets
Ingredients
For the Tartlet Shells
- 3 cups all – purpose flour
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 egg
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoon milk (plus 1 more tablespoon of milk, if needed)
- Pinch of salt
Vanilla Pastry Cream
- 7 egg yolks
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoon cornstarch
- Pinch salt
- 1 vanilla bean
Also need:
- strawberries (for decoration)
Instructions
How To Make The Tartlet Shells:
- In the bowl, blender, or mixer, combine flour, cubed cold butter, egg, pinch of salt, and milk.
- Mix until the dough starts to come together. If necessary, add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a soft dough.
- Form the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Roll out the dough to about ⅛ inch thick.
- Cut circles using a round cookie cutter (about 3 inches in diameter). Place the circles in a mini muffin tin.
- Prick the bottom of each shell with a fork and crimp the edges of the shell with a fork.
- Place paper cupcake liners on top and fill with rice or lentils, whichever you have on hand.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Let them cool completely.
How To Make Vanilla Pastry Cream:
- Slice the vanilla bean in half and remove all the seeds with the knife. Place inside a saucepan with milk. Whisk to combine.
- Heat the milk over medium heat. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until smooth.
- Slowly pour about half of the warm milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling.
- Return the tempered egg mixture to the saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the cream thickens and comes to a gentle boil.
- Let it cook for another minute or so, then remove from heat. Let it cool completely.
Assembling the Tartlets:
- Once the pastry cream is cooled, spoon or pipe it into the tartlet shells.
- Decorate with fresh fruit, berries, a dusting of powdered sugar, or a sprinkle of chocolate shavings.
- Let it rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Serve and enjoy!
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