Friday, June 20, 2008

Summer Mango Tart

mango tart

Summer is the happiest time for fruits lovers. There are so many berries, stone fruits and cherries in the market now that sometime I have difficulty deciding what to buy. Naturally, I am tempted to buy all of them! Under such circumstance, my better half would pull me back to reality by asking:
"Are you sure you can finish all these fruits?"
"Remember we still have some strawberries/raspberries/kiwi/blueberries...in the fridge?" and more importantly -
"Are you sure it's the peak season for cherries now? Will the price goes down next week?"

However, everytime we spot mangoes on sale, both our logics fly out of the window. And we load dozen of them into our shopping cart. You probably can tell from my posts on mango cheesecake,mango cream cake,mango clafoutis, mango mascarpone cake that we have a penchant for mango.

mango tarts

Our favorite way to eat mango, is simply eating it out of hand. I feel guilty burying the sweet and juicy mango under layers of cream and other stuff in cake and other baked goods.

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However when you have 12 mangoes in the fridge, ripening and begging to be eaten at the same time, it's ok to get creative and use some in a gorgeous tart like this. I use some of the dough leftover from the strawberry rhubarb tart to make the base, and Pierre Herme's vanilla pastry cream to fill it, before piling it up with lots of sweet mango cubes. Kiwi is optional, but I find that the green fruit adds contrast and color to the mango tart.

OCT brings it to the lab, and everyone seems to enjoy it, according to him. So much so that there isn't enough to go around, and the poor guy doesn't manage to eat a slice. I make a small one for myself and promptly devored it after taking a picture.

Unless you absolutely loathe mango, otherwise, how could anyone resist this?

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I am submitting this mango tart to Meeta's Monthly Mingle, in which the theme for the month is "Mango Mania"! Woohoo, I can't wait to see many more mango related posts popping up in the blogsphere in the coming month. :)

Mango Tart
1/3 recipe of sweet tart dough, baked and cooled
2-3 ripe mangoes, peeled and cubed
1 kiwi, peeled and cubed
for pastry cream:
(adapted from "Desserts by Pierre Herme")
1 cup 2% milk
1 plump, moist vanilla vean, split lengthwise and scraped
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/6 cup cornstarch, sifted. (1/2 of a 1/3 cup.Eyeball it using the 1/3 cup)
1.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

To make the pastry cream:
Bring milk and vanilla bean( pulp and pod) to a boil in a small saucepan. Cover the pan, remove from heat and let the liquid be infused with scent of vanilla, for 10 minutes.

Fill a large bowl with ice cubes and set aside a small bowl that can hold the finished cream and be placed in this ice bath. Allow set aside a fine-meshed strainer.

Whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. While whisking, slowly drizzle a quarter of the hot milk into the yolks. Continue to add in the rest of the milk into the tempered yolks, whisking all the while. Remove the vanilla pod.

Place the saucepan over high heat and whisking vigorously, without stop, bring the mixture to the boil. Continue to whisk another 1-2 minutes, until you notice that the texture of th cream has thicken, and less liquidy, remove from heat. Press the cream through the sieve into the reserved small bowl. Set the bowl in the ice bath prepared earlier, and stirring frequently so that the mixture remains smooth, cool the cream to 140F, as measured on an instant read thermometer. Stir in the butter in two or three additions. Make sure that you don't add the butter in when the mixture is still hot. Or the cream would separate. Stir the cream occasionally until it is completely cool. It is ready to be used at this point or keep refrigerated, until you are ready to assemble the tart.

Assembling the tart:
Spread the desired amount of pastry cream into the tart shell, place the cubed mango and kiwi on top of the cream. Enjoy!

22 comments:

  1. Thanks for the heads-up! I love anything mango-related! :P Nice tart!

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  2. Wow! I love the way you filled your tart with the mangoes! It looks so so good!

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  3. All I'm going to say is: OMG!!! I'm drooling! I love mango!

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  4. Anonymous11:12 AM

    This looks great - and how could anyone not like mangoes?

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  5. That mango and kiwi tart looks great!

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  6. I love the cute mango curls! I'm sure the flavour is great, mango + vanilla cream + cruch from the tart case = heaven!

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  7. This is a wonderful tart. The shortcrust pastry looks crispy and crumbly. It shows a very good texture. I love the curly edges of tart you presented, so professional!

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  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  9. Oh dear, I read again and found the recipe. Sorry dear, I've made a rude mistake. Will you please delete my comments then? Thanks.

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  10. I wish I could find mangoes on sale here - I'm lucky if I can get them for under $2 a piece. This sounds so delicious!

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  11. Your mango recipes always make me drool!

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  12. Anonymous8:49 PM

    Found this from flickr - that tart looks awesome. Please excuse the word from the 80's, but it just really looks awesome. love the colors in the photos. so summer.

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  13. Nothing like Summer fruits. Great burst of colour. I'm sure it's a burst of flavour in the mouth too.

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  14. Anonymous5:23 AM

    For me, there is not much in the world that can top a mango. This tart is a KNOCK-OUT! I REALLY want to try it. Here in Kyoto, Japan, where I live mangos can be unbelievably expensive; like $30-$40 US for one! I will have to save up!

    KyotoFoodieのPeko

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  15. Mandy:
    Your tart looks luscious!

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  16. Anonymous8:57 AM

    I thought this was mac and cheese and first! I love the colors. Very good!

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  17. Wow Mandy, I saw your picture at foodgawker and had to stop by and tell you how wonderful your tart looks... a delish! I haven't start baking myself but this is the kind of thing that would get me there
    ;-)

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  18. mango is my favorite fruit (especially when they are perfectly ripe). Your tart looks delicious and so fresh!

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  19. This looks amazing! I love the bright colors. Mangoes are so yummy...I've only ever eaten them plain ol' sliced. They look much more spectacular this way!

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  20. Wow....great Blog. I love your pictures! Looks like you can take a bite right out of them!

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  21. I love the choice to dot the top of the tart with those darling green kiwi bits. This is a lovely tart.

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  22. i could never resist that either. LOving the green and yellow combination. Very pretty indeed!

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