An easy fruit tart recipe that’s colorful and made with an incredible buttery sweet crust, mascarpone filling and your favorite fruit assortment. 

This easy fruit tart is slightly different from the classic French fruit tart. French fruit tarts are usually made with a pate sucree or sweet tart dough and filled with whipped cream mixed with traditional pastry cream, a type of custard. While French fruit tarts are delicious, they are a little more complex to make.

How to Make Easy Fresh Fruit Tarts

These fresh fruit tarts are much easier to make. The crust is a no-fuss shortbread and the filling does not have to be cooked and cooled like a pastry cream.

And the fruits on top can be whatever fruits you love. Easy peasy! But let's break it down so you can decide for yourself! (Be sure to also watch the video and read the recipe card before starting.)

Step 1: Making The Crumbly Shortbread Crust

This fresh fruit tart is made with an easy shortbread crust that can be made without a mixer and will absolutely just melt in your mouth. It has a crumbly soft texture that’s almost like a cookie. Yes, there is a lot of butter in there, but you will not regret the taste!

To make the dough, it’s important to use softened butter! This will allow you to easily mix the butter with the sugar and egg. Just leave the butter out for an hour before starting your tart dough. (Frozen butter will take longer)

Beat the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon and add in the egg yolk and salt. Add the flour and mix well.

Once you form the dough into a ball, you can press it into your tart pan. I chose to use 6 smaller tart pans but I have also used a 13x4 inch rectangular tart pan. 

Once the crust is in the pan, make sure you poke it all over the bottom AND SIDES with a fork. This keeps the crust from getting too puffy in the oven. Bake the crusts for 10-12 minutes at 350°F and let them cool. 

Step 2: Make The Simple Mascarpone Filling

The filling is a simple mixture of mascarpone cheese and whipped cream, flavored with some vanilla and sugar. The whipped cream lightens up the filling, but if you want to skip it, you can try doubling the amount of mascarpone instead.

I used only mascarpone mixed with lemon in my strawberry tart and it worked perfectly.

Feel free to add other flavorings to it also such as lemon zest or a splash of your favorite liqueur! Amaretto and Limoncello work great.

Step 3: Prepare A Fruit Topping

Top it with whatever combination of fruit you prefer! Berries, kiwis, pineapples, orange slices! Just make sure that you pat dry your berries before using them or the color will run into the filling making it look less pretty. 

Leave smaller berries whole but strawberries should be sliced. Try overlapping the slices to make a pretty arrangement. Consider the colors while placing your fruits and avoid placing similar colors next to each other.

Step 4: Add a Simple Fruit Glaze (Optional)

I also highly recommend adding a fruit tart glaze to finish it off. It’s completely optional but it makes the tart look professional and also adds an appetizing shine to the fruit.

All you need is a jar of fruit preserves and a little heat. I have a more in depth post on fruit tart glaze if you would like to read more about it.

Additional Tips for Making Fruit Tarts

• The crust can also be baked ahead of time and stored in an airtight container if you want to fill them the next day. 
• I do not recommend freezing the filling as it is mascarpone cheese. It will not have the same texture when thawed.
• Always use fresh fruit not frozen fruit.