Rustic Autumn Fruit Tart

Very easy, I made a few changes, used 4 small apples and 3 pears, I let the fruit marinade in the OJ with the spices and then I drained the sauce before putting it in the dough. The first time I made this I did not drain and the liquid seeped thru the crust and burned. Delicious !!!

I loved this recipe! The pastry came out perfect, I am surprised at the reviewers who had troubles with getting it right. I am thinking about using this as a pie crust as well - my family and I loved it! It was nice and flaky, it came out of the tart pan without any trouble, it did not stick at all -- and I did not grease the pan at all or prepared it in any way. The cardamom gave the filling a great subtle taste. Slightly different then allspice, worth using it if available. I added one extra pear, drained the fruits before tossing with spices and sugar (I upped the corn starch a bit to compensate) and it was perfect. This tart will be on all my festive dinner tables from now on. Thanks for a great recipe!

this is absolutely delicious. my main purpose in making this was to try out my new jar of cardamom (i had never tried it before, but i am intrigued by this spice). the spices in this recipe blend together so well. nice presentation also.

This is the kind of dessert found in quality European patisseries. I used 2 pears and 1 1/2 granny smith apples. It's very important to slice the fruit very thin. Unless you are lucky enough to own a mandolin, this step is tricky and takes time. It might be a good idea to slice an extra pear or apple to have a choice of the best shaped pieces. I added slightly more corn starch to make sure that the filling wouldn't be runny. Laying the fruit in a pretty way isn't really difficult and is something that with practice will only get better. Cardamom is a spice I hadn't used before. I found it's addition subtly added an unusual and interesting flavour. Using a tart pan with a removable bottom will best show off all of your hard work and makes it so easy to serve. I may tinker with the pastry to improve it, but that could just be me. I'm still toiling away to better any pastry I make. Give yourself time to put this tart together. Your patience will be rewarded. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe.

This was very good and pretty. I used reduced fat cream cheese, 1 1/2 large Fuji apples, 1 Bosc pear, low-acid orange juice (the only kind we drink), and had to substitute 1/8 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon chai spice mix for the cardamom (I could not find it at the base commissary). I used Trader Joe's preserves. I served it with Breyer's Homemade Vanilla ice cream. I would have given the recipe 5 stars, but the cook time was off (and my oven is very accurate); I had to cook it 45 minutes. Also, I used a tart pan and the crust stuck around the edges. It definitely needed to be lightly greased. I'm not sure if refrigerating the dough was a necessary step. The dough was not sticky and appeared easy to work with, but I did refrigerate it for an hour and it was extremely stiff. I found the dessert to be very sweet and rich. I will definitely make this again.

This is a fabulous recipe. I made mine free form. I also added a bit of almond to the filling, to give it a little extra punch of flavor. I used one pear, one red delicious apple, and 1 each of a small granny smith and a macintosh apple. Very yummy!

1/2 cup cream cheese = 4 oz. (or half of an 8 oz. brick) The first time I made this I made the mistake of using 8 oz of cream cheese which makes too much dough. The second time I got it right, but the crust isn't as tender as I was hoping for. I added a pinch of salt and also 1-2 T of cold water to the dough to get it to form a ball. The filling has very good flavor. I needed to bake this about 10 min. longer than stated. Also 1/4 cup jam is plenty to thickly coat the top of the tart.

My daughter and I are experienced bakers and we found this recipe a challenge. As others have noted, the dough was stiff and hard to work with. We did a free form pie on the baking sheet and presentation wise it would win no blue ribbons, the juice all ran out. 30 minutes is not enough time for the fruit to bake properly, we had to bake it at least an extra 30 minutes or so with butter dotting the fruit and a tent of aluminum foil. The flavors on the fruit were great, but the dough was tough and bland. However the saving grace was topping it with Haagen Daaz Vanilla Ice Cream, so it wasn't a complete loss. If we made this one again we would use another tried and tested cream cheese dough recipe, slice the apples and pears thinner, put in a pie pan and bake longer. Oh, and the apricot jam? It gave the dough some sweetness but otherwise, I wouldn't bother with it.

This recipe is so good! The cardamom really makes it, and to really get the best taste, serve it warm with a little vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Also, I took the advice of the last reviewer and spread a thin layer of almond filling on the dough before layering on the fruit. It is subtle, but it goes very well with all of te flavors.

My family loved this but we made it into a pie instead. I used double the pastry recipe and double the tart recipe and added to a pie dish and baked as I would a pie until done. It was a little more tart than I care for but very good. I would probably increase sugar to reduce tartness (I used 6 Granny Smith apples to make the pie) or use different type of apples. I will definitely make again as it was very good and theres not a bite left after the 2nd day :) Thank you so much. The pastry is very easy to make in the food processor.

Fabulous. I used a premade crust and used allspice instead of cardamom. I also sprinkled some sugar on the crust before I added the fruit. I used Orange Marmelade instead of Aprico Jam, I bought the wrong thing, but it was very nice and still gave the tart the shine. Will definately make this again.

First time I baked it for my family and they devoured it. Second time I baked it for guests and everyone wanted the recipe! The only change I made, was to use sugar free jam and I used pear and it was wonderful and light enough for diabetics in my family.

One of my all-time favorite recipes; don't even need a pie pan! I like to add walnuts and top with extra cinnamon right before I pop it in the oven.

Excellent, and delicious! Does need to bake a little longer until brown and crisp. I used only pears (3-4) and did drain the liquid, just sprinkling over after arranging the pears. The apricot glaze was a perfect finishing touch, and the Breyers vanilla bean was absolutely even better!

OK, TASTED LIKE APPLE PINE

Gorgeous to look at and easy to make. Could this be the perfect autumn dessert?

I liked this but made some alterations. I did not have cardamom so I added some allspice and a little extra cinnamon. I think if I were to make this again I would reduce the orange juice slightly. I wasn't crazy about the flavor it created. I would possibly add another pear. The apples seemed to over power the pears. Otherwise simple tasty recipe would make again.

Delicious, and gorgeous. I made this for two dinner parties, and got great reviews at both, especially for the crust. I used allspice instead of cardamom, and added an extra pear and a little extra cornstarch (the fruit was juicy).

I had been waiting months and months to give this recipe a try, and I'm sad to say I was disappointed with the results. While its' appearance was nice overall, the dough had a bland taste and the seasonings on the apple just didn't seem right. I feel like with some tweaks this could be a great dessert, but as it stands right now something just seemed... off. Sorry :-/

We liked this, but I was a little confused if I was supposed to drain the liquid or not. After reading some of the reviews, I chose to arrange my fruit and then just drizzle a bit of the liquid over top. I was afraid that if I used all of the liquid, my crust would be soggy. I did substitute raspberry jam for the apricot, as that is what I had on hand, and it worked just fine. I loved the cream cheese crust, but my kids didn't.

As it stands, this is a pretty terrible recipe. The crust is flavorlessand needs sugar. The orange juice is weird and it makes everything runny. The two stars are because it was absolutely beautiful and I liked the apricot jam idea. I'll use that with a different recipe.

So yummy!! I think I added a little more fruit, but otherwise followed as written and we loved it. Thanks!

Flavor of this tart is good. I used Bartlett Pears and I think they may be juicier than some other pears so it didn't set up well. Used 2 pears and 2 apples. Wouldn't use any less. Maybe should have upped the cornstarch since I used more fruit. Crust was tasty but at first it doesn't seem like it is coming together. Keep working with it. Does not work well in free form, the juice runs everywhere. So moved it to a tart pan.

My first tort and it was awesome...the wife and kids all think I am amazing.. thank you.

Wonderful, and I'm officially going to start adding cardamom to my apple pies now as well. I spaced on the orange juice and didn't have any on hand, so I tossed the fruit with a 50/50 mix of pure lemon juice and water--anxious to try to again with oj and see if it alters the taste. I did add more fruit--2 gala apples and 2 Bosc pears--also anxious to try different varieties. Oddly enough, I tried this recipe to use the 2 pears before they spoiled, but it looks like I'll be running out for more pears since this didn't last long at all;)

This was very good and the first time I have ever had a pie crust turn out. Although now my husband told me I can be the pie crust maker from now on, as that was always his job. Next time I will add another pear, as that was such a treat to have that pear taste in a few of the bites.

My sister who is very fussy ate one piece and then another and then another...... I must say that if you like your dessert a little sweeter - and another 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

I followed the directions exactly and found that the chilled dough was very stiff and difficult to work with, not flaky at all and 30 minutes left the fruit still raw. Good flavor in both crust and filling, but definitely bake longer.

Excellent--Made this with peaches this weekend, huge hit with guests!

This was good. I made it free-form and put the apples in the crust, then folded up the edges, then poured the rest of the sauce in (so it wouldn't spill). The top apples got a little dry, so I put the apricot jam on top and then baked it the last 10 minutes. I had trouble with the crust. It was just falling apart, so I added a little bit of water until it just barely stuck together before refrigerating. (I'm not sure if that is the right thing to do)

Awesome!! made the free form one cuz i don't have a tart pan. Just don't leave the dough in the fridge for too long cuz then it gets too hard. Didn't have cardamon so i used mace spice. still tasted great. had to bake for an extra 10 minutes but i'm using an oven in China so that might be the reason why.

I had difficulty with the dough. I used the food processor method and refrigerating it made it hard to work with. I ended up pressing it into the tart pan. I consulted a favorite cookbook recipe which recommended adding confectioners sugar to the dough for sweetness, so I brushed some on top of the dough inthe pan. to prevent the juice from making the crust soggy, they also recommended brushing the jam onto the crust before adding the apples, which I did. I used an apple peeler/corer/slicer to get uniform slices and hand sliced the pear. Rather than mix the apples with the sauce, I arranged the slices in the tart pan in a circle and intermingled the pear. I poured the sauce on top and brushed it around but used a little less OJ because my apples were a little soft. It's baking and looks fabulous but I;m rating this a 4 because the dough was hard to work with.

This recipe would have been better if I bought a crust already made from the store. It was very blan and had no flavor except the taste of baked apples. The crust was plain and for the amount of time put into getting everything prepared it was disappointing when I was able to finally taste it. I Will not make this again!

much less cardamom--it's almost overpowering. I would say, if you double the recipe, keep the same amt of cardamom as a single recipe would call for, or half that.

Did the crust in a food processor. It did not hold as the recipe indicated that it would. I used the recipe amount of cream cheese and butter..the dough was crumbly. I never worked with a crust made with cream cheese...when I dumped it out on the counter, it seemed powdery like all the flour did not incorporate...I kneaded the dough quite a bit to get it to stick together and it felt very stiff..I refrigerated dough for 1/2 hour. Slightly difficult to roll out but it lifted well and I fit it into a 9 and 1/2 tart pan. I used 2 MacIntosh apples and 2 Anjou pears..made the filling and let it sit in juice and drained per suggestions from other recipes. I also doubled the amount of corn starch based on other remarks about the filling being too runny. I saw some other reviewers had added additional corn starch also...the flavors of the filling were awesome. I did not have the any apricot jelly so I heated up some mango jelly and it worked just fine. I cut the apples and pear thinly and took my time and made a nice patterned filling. I overfilled the crust by about 1/2 inch higher..Glad I did..as it cooled, it seemed to settle and I found the finished product was now level with the crust. Everyone loved the dessert. It wasn't too sweet and the cardamon added a nice flavor. I was worried that it would be runny because I could see the level of juice rising in the tart as it cooled. The crust turned out great and flaky. Wasn't runny at all..great dessert..difficult crust

This is the first recipe that I've been successful with a pie crust (I made the gallete version). My pear was very soft so I hid it on the bottom of the tart. The dough could use a bit more flavor.

This was a very nice recipe. I wasn't crazy about the crus but was very tasty otherwise.

Great recipe! The crust is divine! I have made it with and without the cardamom (my mother does not care for it) and it was wonderful either way! I use extra orange juice and pears for more flavor.

I swapped regular flour for a gluten free blend from Costco and it turned out fine. I also made a regular flour one. I used 4 ripe Bartlett pears, no apples, in each one. I poured all the spice juice in and cooked for 30 minutes and it was perfect. I used Calphalon 9" spring form non-stick pans. I greased the pans a little with butter. Slid right off. I flattened the dough out to about a 7" disk then chilled the dough for 1-2 hours before rolling it. It was a little stiff but the rolling pin worked fine to get it to the width I needed. It was easy to tear away pieces and add them back to other parts of the crust as needed. I chilled the flour overnight in the fridge before making the dough. This seemed to help the butter and flour blend well in the food processor (using the "pulse" mode). Then I added the cream cheese and pulsed some more. Total pulsing time was about 3-4 minutes.

Fast, Easy, Fantastic!!!

After reading the reviews, I decided to add a bit of powdered sugar and a pinch of salt to the dough in my food processor. I put the chilled butter cubes and four ounces of the cream cheese in with the flour. After pulsing, I dumped it all out on parchment paper. It didn't want to clump together so I put it back in the food processor. I decided to add a bit of vanilla, a squirt of lemon juice, and a half tsp. of water. I pulsed it again and dumped it out on the parchment paper. This time it let me shape it into a round flat shape. I wrapped it up and put it in the fridge while I prepared the fruit. I used a Fuji apple, a Granny Smith, and a bartlet pear. I grated a bit of nutmeg, added the cinnamon, and put in a quarter tsp. of pumpkin pie spice as I didn't have cardamom. I squeezed lemon juice over the apples instead of using the orange juice and poured the brown sugar and a bit more of the corn starch over them with the spices. I let that sit awhile so I could prepare the crust. It had the right amount of juice. I rolled the dough between two sheets of parchment paper which made it easy to get the right size and to place it in a tart pan. I cut the excess dough off and cooked it to test it out. Very buttery and flakey. Next time I would use less sugar with the apples, cook it longer with aluminum foil cover, and do the crust just like I did. Yummy!

I followed the directions exactly and it came out wonderful. i did soak the fruit then drain the liquid. The only trouble i had was rolling out the dough because i didn't have anything to use- i tried with an empty wine bottle, with out much success. It might not look great but i could not stop eating it. i would next time use more fruit in my 9 inch pan. DELICIOUS!

Great recipe the entire family enjoyed. Pretty easy also!! The pastry was so wonderful would also be great for a pie. Made my tart free form. Served with vanilla bean ice cream. What a great comfort food dessert!!

Very nice tart. I made one crust out of half the dough--not really on purpose, but it did seem like a lot of dough. I can definitely use the remainder of the dough in something else; it just surprised me. I didn't have apples so I subbed peaches and I accidently added 1/3 c oj instead of 1/4 c, which made it more custardy. It was still pretty good, though. I forgot the apricot jam but I love the blending of the flavors. Thanks for the recipe!

Delicious with mascarpone! I also added almond extract & lemon juice to OJ mixture, and sliced almonds on top. I used 2 pears and 2 apples. Besides these minor changes, everything else as directed and it was delicious.

The rating is based on the amount of time it took my two boys and husband to finish the leftovers - 2 days! The other desert I served along side of this at Thanksgiving dinner was gone in the same seating.

This turned out fantastic! I loved the crust:)

wow! this was SOOOO easy and SOOOO amazing! I am not sure what the other readers were doing but the amount of dough was fine for me - could've used more even?

The taste of pear did not come out, and nutmeg was too strong.

The fruit was delicious but the tart was so hard we needed a knife to cut it. A bit embarrassing since I brought it to family dinner.

I didn't have cream cheese, so I used another pastry dough recipe (Which turned out great), but I kept the filling the same. The sauce mixture didn't boil and thicken even after baking for an extra 15 minutes, so it came out a little runny. It still tasted pretty good, but the orange juice flavor was a little too strong. I felt it was a relatively simple tart to make, and with a couple modifications, would be extremely good for any occasion.

It turned out amazing, but I think next time I'll leave out the cardamon ( I like it, I make homemade chai with it) but just not for this. Definitely a keeper :)

I had trouble with the crust. I used gf flour but even so, the dough was just crumbly and couldn't be rolled out. I ended up pressing it into the pans. I wanted to make mini tarts so I used 5 mini tart/quiche dishes I got from World Market. I think it would actually fit better in 4 so that when the fruit bakes down it still looks full. The cardamon seemed a little strong to me, I'd probably cut it down a little bit next time so it doesn't stand out quite as much.

Amazing ! I used pears apples and little powder almond, read carefully the reviewers ...it's very helpfull

Fantastic recipe as is, but also super flexible. Have used whatever fruit or jam I have on hand with equally delicious results. Makes quite and impression when brought to dinner parties.

This tart was delicious. It was a nice alternative to apple pie at thanksgiving.

My 12 year old daughter has made this recipe many times, and it never fails to please. She does drain out the orange juice - otherwise you will have an apple tart mess. She pain stakingly arranges the fruit in a beautiful design, and the presentation is gorgeous. She has made it in small pans for individual servings and in a large pan. It's simply delicious.

This is a very nice adaptable method! I've got my second pear/honey/peach-jam/almond version in the oven right now. Always fun to get the baking bug and realize you have no brown sugar, etc. ;-) I'm keeping this one on hand!

I haven't actually cut the pie yet, but I did pick a few pieces of fruit off of the top. Delicious. A few changes were made because of the ingredients that were already in the house. I used about 6 small sand pears and 2 small golden delicious apples. Because I had so much fruit (I had to use it all as the apples were becoming wrinkled in the fruit bowl) I used a 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Used all spice instead of cardamom. 1/8 teaspoon of ginger and almond essence. I also did not use all of the liquid. As you can see from the picture, I didn't arrange the fruit either. The pears stay crunchy. Crust nice. I prefer a sweet crust. Husband loved it