A belated Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! Just casually sharing this year’s Christmas dessert on the 28th of December – a fruit tart imitating a wreath, an idea I found on Instagram a while back – because as I like to believe, Christmas isn’t just a day, it’s a frame of mind.
Tragically, the decorating process was a little rocky (see here for an idea of what I was trying to achieve), but a dusting of icing sugar in abundance saved the day, proving that sometimes, more is more is more indeed.
Wreath Tart
makes a 7 inch tart
The possibilities are endless with this tart. Here, I filled the shell with almond cream and spread a thin layer of pastry cream on top of the baked filling to hold the fruits in place. You could use jam instead of pastry cream, and forgo the almond cream for a different sort of filling. What fruits to use would also vary according to your preferred colour scheme as well as what’s available to you. As such, I’m sharing just the recipe for the tart crust I used plus instructions for forming the wreath shape.
For the crust:
refer to recipe here
Make the crust: After mixing and chilling the dough, roll it out into a thin even sheet and press it into the tart pan. Take a round cake ring that’s 2 or 3 inches in diameter and cut out a circle of dough from the center of the tart. Leave the cake ring in the middle. Combine the cut out circle of dough with the remaining dough and roll it out into a rectangular strip that’s long enough to go around the cake ring once. Slice the dough such that you get a piece that’s wide enough that when it’s wrapped around the cake ring, would be level with the height of the tart pan. (Pictorial representation here.) Chill the dough for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
Bake the tart: Preheat oven to 170C. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with baking beans. Bake for 15 minutes, remove the baking beans and parchment and bake for another 10 to 20 minutes, or until the crust takes on a golden brown colour. Allow crust to cool completely in the pan.
wild reverie 
