Mango Tart (with passionfruit and apricot)

January has always been a busy month in my family, since we’ve got four birthdays to celebrate (my cousin, my grandmother, my father and my aunt). We usually celebrate at least two or three of these birthdays at the same time, because, well, it’s convenient! This year, this celebration took place at my parents’ house, which means I was in charge of the cakes. Because it was my father’s birthday, I asked him what kind of cake he would like. The answer: “Something with mango would be nice.”

So, something with mango it was! I started browsing through some of my baking books (and the good ol’ internet, of course), and eventually came up with this mango tart with passionfruit and an apricot glaze. A pretty tropical choice for January, but it worked really well! Of course, mango is always delicious, no matter the season.

Making the pastry took two tries, since the first one was too dry and crumbled out of the tin when I tried to take out the baking beans… I did some more research and then tried (a slightly modified version of) this pastry by Sorted Food. It worked splendidly! I’m definitely going to use the recipe below for every tart I might make in the future.

This tart was a big success: everybody loved it! The mango worked very well with the mascarpone, and the passionfruit juice added an extra little boost. I’m definitely going to make this one again — in the summer maybe?

You’ll need…

For the pastry

• 260 g plain flour (and a little bit extra for dusting purposes)
• 125 g butter (cold, in cubes)
• 90 g white caster sugar
• 2 medium sized eggs, beaten
• a pinch of salt
• clingfilm
• parchment paper
• baking beans
• flan tin (24 cm)
• rolling pin (although a wine bottle works just fine as well)
• and an oven, of course! This pastry needs to be baked at 180 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

For the filling

• 350 g mascarpone (or a different cream cheese)
• 3-4 passionfruit (depending on size)
• 2 small ripe mangoes
• 6 tablespoons of apricot jam

So, let’s get baking!

The Pastry

1. Mix butter and flour together Put the butter and the flour in a large bowl, and rub them together with your (preferably cold) hands. Keep doing this until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

2. Add sugar and eggs Add the sugar and the beaten eggs to the mixture, and gently stir it through. Now you have to knead the mixture into a ball of dough (but don’t overwork it). The dough will be quite soft, but don’t worry, that’s fine! Wrap the ball of dough in clingfilm, and put it in the fridge. Cool it for one hour.

3. Roll out dough After you’ve let the dough chill for one hour, take it out of the fridge again. Lightly dust a (clean!) surface with flour, and roll out the dough until it’s about 3 mm thick. Make sure it has a round shape so it completely covers the tin.

4. Transfer dough to tin Now it’s time to transfer your dough to a greased and floured flan tin. Let’s hope it doesn’t stick to your work surface! To easily transfer the dough, carefully roll it around your (floured!) rolling pin, lift it, and then roll it out again over the tin. Be very careful while you do this, since the dough might stick to your surface, and you don’t want it to rip. Once you’ve succesfully rolled out the dough over the tin, press into the edges (gently), and trim off any excess dough around the edges. Prick with a fork into the bottom a few times.

5. Add flour and baking beans To make sure the baking paper doesn’t stick to your pastry while baking, divide some flour over the base of your tin (on top of the pastry). Then, line the tin with parchment paper (so, again, on top of the pastry), and fill it with baking beans. Put the whole thing in the fridge for another 15 minutes (at least).

6. Bake the pastry! After another 15 minutes of letting the pastry chill, put the tin in your preheated oven (180 °C) and bake it for 15 minutes. Then, take out the baking paper and baking beans and bake the pastry for another 5-8 minutes (until the bottom of the pastry just starts to brown slightly here and there). Take it out of the oven and let it cool.

The Filling

7. Mix mascarpone with passionfruit juice Sieve the passionfruit pulp above a bowl, and mix it with the mascarpone. Then, spoon the mascarpone mixture onto your completely cooled pastry.

8. Divide mango over pastry Peel your mangoes and cut them whichever way you want (I cut them into small pieces). Divide the pieces of mango over your pastry, on top of the mascarpone. Make sure it is (more or less) completely covered.

9. Glaze mango with melted apricot jam Melt the apricot jam in a small pan on the stove, and then brush the melted jam over the mango. Use the jam to cover any spots where the mascarpone comes through.

Put the tart into the refrigerator so it can cool and set, and serve it within two hours of putting the filling in the pastry. You can make the pastry itself in advance!

And there you have it, your mango tart with passion fruit and apricot jam! Enjoy!