N.Yr.Eve Feast - 3. Fruit Solitaires
Submitted by jlmcw
Fruit solitaire tarts with orange-scented butter pastry shaped like playing card suits, filled with cherry and blueberry pie filling. A festive New Year’s Eve dessert.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
15 minREADY
35 minThese individual fruit tarts are built for a party. The pastry dough is enriched with egg yolks, fresh orange juice, and orange zest, giving it a delicate citrus flavor and a tender, shortbread-like crunch. Shaped into playing card suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades), they’re as much a conversation piece as they are a dessert.
The dough comes together in a food processor. Pulse the flour, sugar, and cold butter until it looks like coarse crumbs, then add the yolks and orange juice and pulse just until a ball forms. Overprocessing makes the pastry tough instead of flaky. Pat each sixth into a flat shape with a ½-inch rim to hold the filling.
Freeze the shaped tarts for 5 minutes before baking. That quick chill firms the butter back up so the pastry holds its shape in the hot oven instead of slumping flat.
Fill the baked and cooled shells with cherry or blueberry pie filling right before serving. Filling them too early turns the crisp crust soggy.
Kitchen Tips
- Keep the butter cold and cut into small pieces before processing. Warm butter blends too smoothly and you lose the flaky texture.
- Shape them on the cookie sheet directly. These are too delicate to transfer after shaping.
- If you don’t want to fuss with card shapes, simple 4-inch circles with raised rims work just as well.
Variations
- Use lemon zest and juice instead of orange for a sharper citrus crust.
- Fill with fresh sliced strawberries and a glaze of warmed apricot jam for a more elegant look.
- Top each tart with a small dollop of whipped cream and a twist of orange zest for garnish.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).
Grate peel from orange to measure 2 tsp; squeeze juice to measure 4 tbsp.
Place flour and sugar in food processor with butter; pulse, using on-off, just until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add egg yolks, orange peel and 3 tbsp reserved orange juice.
Pulse just until mixture forms a ball, adding additional 1 tablespoon orange juice if necessary.
Pat dough into a flat disk; divide into sixths.
On lightly floured cookie sheet, place one sixth of dough.
Using floured fingers, shape dough into either a club, diamond, heart or spade playing-card shape, 4½ x 3½, forming a ½-inch high rim.
(Or simply shape into 4-inch circle, forming a ½-inch high rim. ) Repeat with the remaining dough.
Freeze cookie sheet 5 minutes until dough is firm. Bake 14 to 16 minutes until crust is lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.
To serve, spoon pie fillings into cookies crusts. Place tarts on individual serving plates. Garnish.
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