Strawberries, red fruits, apricots, peaches, rhubarb, raspberries, pears, plums, lemons… Throughout the seasons, a myriad of colorful fruits parade on the supermarket or market stalls. This allows you to indulge yourself all year round with tasty pies prepared with love, but also with fresh, vitamin-packed and seasonal foods. However, a successful dessert should ideally be as beautiful as it is delicious. Proof of this: when you look at the window of a bakery and pastry shop, it’s impossible to resist the attraction of a beautiful, shiny fruit tart. Just looking at it, we’re already salivating, imagining tasting its crispy shortbread dough topped with melting fruits and a delicious pastry cream! So, if you want to impress your guests, don’t hesitate to try these tips available to everyone to make a tart shine like a professional pastry chef.
Here we give you several tips for icing, topping, browning or shining a tart easily and efficiently depending on your desires and the ingredients you have in the kitchen. There is no doubt that this little ‘extra’ will elegantly embellish your snacks and end of meals!
1) Sugar syrup to make a tart shine
Don’t want to distort the taste of fruit? In this case, opt instead for a neutral topping for sweet tarts made from sugar and water. To do this, simply pour these ingredients in equal quantities into a saucepan. Then heat everything over low heat, stirring often. Above all, make sure that the preparation does not color too much. The goal is not to caramelize it. So, as soon as the mixture becomes a little sticky and translucent, stop cooking and let the syrup cool. After that, get your brushes! All that’s left to do is top the pie.
The extra thing? Flavor your syrup by adding spices during cooking. For example, you can add a cinnamon stick if you plan to make an apple pie. It will be a treat!
2) A jam topping
Do you make your own fruit jams? In this case, do not hesitate to use a jam or jelly to add shine to a tart. You can use some one that corresponds to the fruit used for dessert. Otherwise, choose a jar of apricot jam which will have the advantage of having a more neutral taste and which will also have a aspect plus transparent. In practice, heat a few spoons of jam over low heat to liquefy it and soften it slightly, then apply everything with a brush, paying particular attention to the reliefs.
3) A honey glaze to make a fruit tart shine
Honey will give an even more delicious result in the mouth than sugar syrup. It will indeed bring its sweet flavor that will perfectly compliment the acidity of the fruits used for your recipe. Just make sure to do not take honey that is too strong in taste which could take over. To use it, it’s very simple: melt it gently in a saucepan or in the microwave. Don’t hesitate to add a little water if it seems too thick. This way, the texture will be closer to that of a syrup. Then, all you have to do is brush the tart five minutes before the end of cooking.
4) Gelatin or agar-agar to make your tart shine
For a result like a pastry chef’s, don’t hesitate to opt for gelatin which will provide a very shiny result. To do this, we will follow the same recipe as for sugar syrup (with the same proportions of water and sugar and always ensuring that it does not color too much). While your syrup is heating over low heat, soak your gelatin leaves in cold water. Provide here a sheet of gelatin for 250 ml of sugar syrup. Once the sugar syrup is ready, all you have to do is add the gelling agent after draining it and leave to cool before brushing the tart.
For a vegan recipe (or if you don’t like gelatin), you can use 1 g of agar-agar for 250 ml of water to add however from the start of cooking the syrupand not afterwards as for gelatin.
5) Egg topping, grandmother’s tip to make a tart shine
With this last tip, we return to simple, no-fuss ingredients. If you have any yolk left at the end of your recipethis will also be a good way to use it. To do this, start by beating the yolk with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of water. Then, all you have to do is apply this mixture with a brush over the entire surface of the tart, without forgetting the edges. Finally, put everything in the oven as usual. At the end of cooking, you will discover a natural golden topping.
Thus, seasonal fruits bring an explosion of colors and flavors to our tables, whether in pies, jams or eaten fresh. To enhance your fruit tarts and impress your guests, there’s nothing like a beautiful shiny topping. Thanks to the tips presented, you can easily glaze, coat or brown your tarts to give them an appearance worthy of the most beautiful pastry windows. Whether you opt for sugar syrup, jam, honey, gelatin or simply an egg yolk, each technique brings its unique touch of delicacy and refinement. So, give free rein to your creativity and make your desserts shine for elegant and tasty snacks and end of meals. With these tips, you are now equipped to succeed in all your fruit tarts and delight the taste buds of your loved ones.
So ! You now know how to have a shiny pie. And of course, you can use these tips to make your fruit shine for all your cakes and desserts. Haven’t mastered the art of making fruit tarts yet? In this case, discover our tips for keeping the dough crispy and preventing it from ending up soaked in fruit juice. This is really the key to making this recipe a success!