Geometric Fruit Tart Food

HAPPY AS A GRAM TART

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Combine the cranberries and 2 tablespoons water in a 2-quart saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the cranberries burst and start to break down, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and press the cranberries through a fine-mesh sieve with a silicone spatula, extracting as much puree as possible. Discard the remaining pulp and return the puree to the saucepan.
• Add the lemon juice, sugar, salt, eggs, and egg yolks to the cranberry puree and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat, whisking continuously, until the mixture is warmed through. Add the butter gradually and stir until all the cubes have melted. Continue cooking until the mixture is thickened enough to coat a spatula, 5 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping the corners of the saucepan.
• Remove from the heat and strain the curd through a fine-mesh sieve.
• Keep the baked tart shell in the tart pan and place on a baking sheet. Pour the curd into the tart shell, smoothing the surface. Bake the tart for 5 minutes, just to set the filling.
• Cool completely before decorating.
• Peel and cut the fruit into ¼-inch slices. Arrange the fruit slices on a large plate organized by type.
• Cut any type of triangle-equilateral, scalene, obtuse, acute, isosceles, right-from a piece of mango, slicing as close to the edge as possible to maximize the yield of each fruit slice. Pause here if you feel the need to Google image search some triangles. Otherwise, throw math to the wind and cut any sort of shape with three sides. Place it along a tart edge.
• Cut another shape from a kiwi slice and place it next to the mango, leaving some space between the fruit, not unlike tile grout lines. Generally, polygons like triangles, parallelograms, and trapezoids work well for this design. I avoid shapes with more than four sides mainly to save time, but if manually sliced hexagons or even hendecagons (back to Google...) are your thing, by all means, go wild! This is your tart, your life.
• Cut another shape, perhaps a rhombus, from a slice of dragon fruit, and fit it next to the kiwi. Continue cutting shapes, alternating among fruits, and puzzling the pieces together on the tart. Build out from your starting point and slowly fill the whole surface, gradually working your way to the other edge.
• Keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve. This tart is best consumed within two days.

GEOMETRIC FRUIT TART

Steps:

• Whisk the pudding mix, milk and mango puree together in a large bowl for 2 minutes to fully blend and thicken. Pour the mixture into the graham-cracker crust, filling the crust just shy of the top. Spread evenly with an offset spatula, then refrigerate until chilled and set, about 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, prepare the fruit: Cut off the ends of the kiwis, and then peel off the skin by slipping a spoon under the skin and turning the fruit so the spoon separates the skin from the flesh. Slice the kiwis into 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thick rounds. Peel the mango, then trim the bottom end to flatten slightly. On the wider side of the mango, work inwards cutting thin slices about 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thick until you reach the pit; repeat on the other side. Next, peel and cut the pitaya into 1/8-inch-thick to 1/4-inch-thick slices. Using a 1 1/2-inch diamond-shaped cutter and a paring knife, cut out about 20 kiwi diamonds, 20 mango diamonds and about 10 pitaya diamonds (this will give you a few pieces more than you'll need). If you don't have a diamond-shaped cutter, use a paring knife to cut out diamonds that are each about 1 1/2 inches long.
• Once all of your fruit is cut, remove the tart from fridge and begin decorating: Using a small offset spatula to help place the fruit, start in the center of the tart and make a large diamond shape with 9 of the pitaya diamonds. Then make a border around the pitaya with 16 mango diamonds. Then place the kiwi diamonds around the mango, covering the tart all the way to the edges; you will need to trim off parts of the remaining kiwi diamonds to fit along the crust.

TROPICAL TART

Steps:

• Using an electric whisk, beat the mascarpone, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, coconut extract, if using, and a pinch of salt until smooth. Whisk in the coconut cream.
• Spoon the filling into the pastry case, smooth the top and return to the fridge for at least 2 hrs or overnight. Once set, use the tropical fruit to decorate the top of the tart in your desired geometric pattern.