Grapefruit Tarts with Mascarpone Whipped Cream

The prettiest grapefruit tarts for spring and summer, made with crisp, buttery pastry shells, filled with grapefruit pudding and topped with mascarpone whipped cream. These individual cream pies make a lovely dessert for a special celebration.

You might also love these recipes for banana cream pie, chocolate cream pie, citrus sour cream pie, and key lime pie.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Light and Creamy. I love a cream, custard or pudding filled pie in the spring and summer, and these grapefruit tarts are as delicious and refreshing as they are pretty to look at. The individual size makes them even more special.

Everything Made From Scratch. From the all butter pastry crust to the grapefruit filling, there are no store bought pie crusts or boxed pudding mixes used for today’s recipe.

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude. Today’s recipe will work at any altitude, though, with no need for adjustments.

Tools and Equipment

• Individual Tart Pans. If you don’t already have a set of individual tart pans with removable bottoms, it’s a fun thing to have on hand for mini pies, tarts and quiches. I have a set of six, which measure 4 1/2 inches in diameter.
• Pastry Cutter. For making the pastry dough.
• Rolling Pin. I like a straight, French style rolling pin (no handles) for rolling out dough, but use what you’re comfortable with.
• Electric Mixer (Stand or Hand-Held). For whipping the whipped cream.
• Saucepan. You’ll need a saucepan to cook the grapefruit pudding.
• Piping Bag + Tip 1M. Piping the whipped cream on top is a pretty and easy way to decorate these grapefruit tarts.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Grapefruit Pudding

• Sugar. Granulated sugar sweetens the pudding to offset the sourness of the grapefruit.
• Grapefruit. You’ll need one large or several small/medium grapefruits. I like red grapefruits, and you’ll be using both the zest and the juice.
• Corn Starch. Thickens the pudding.
• Egg Yolks. Adds richness and body, as well as helps to thicken the pudding.
• Whole Milk + Heavy Whipping Cream. You need the high fat content of whole milk and heavy whipping cream for the pudding. Lower fat milk and cream will make a thin, watery pudding that may curdle from the acidity of the grapefruit juice.
• Butter. Just a touch of butter added at the end gives the pudding more richness and flavor.

Pastry

• 1 recipe All Butter Pie Dough (2 unbaked pie crusts)

Whipped Cream

• Mascarpone Cheese. This gives a little body and stability to the whipped cream. You can also use block style cream cheese instead of mascarpone.
• Heavy Whipping Cream. Again, the high fat content is important for making the whipped cream thick and fluffy.
• Powdered Sugar. Adds sweetness and stability.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.

Instructions

Grapefruit Pudding

• Measure the sugar into a bowl, then zest the grapefruit over the sugar. Use your fingers to rub the grapefruit zest into the sugar. (Note, my sugar is pink because I used some leftover strawberry sugar from these baked strawberry donuts. In the end, the pink sugar didn’t affect the color of the pudding.)

• Cut the grapefruit in half and squeeze it over a fine mesh strainer to remove the pulp from the juice. You’ll need 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice.
• In a medium sized saucepan, whisk together the grapefruit sugar with the corn starch. Whisk in the grapefruit juice until smooth, then whisk in the egg yolks.

• Add the milk and the cream and whisk until combined.
• Note: If you want your grapefruit pudding to be pink, you’ll need to add a drop of red or pink food coloring. Without food coloring, its natural color will be more yellow.

• Place the saucepan over medium to medium low heat. Use a silicone spatula to stir the mixture constantly, while gently cooking the pudding. Cook until the pudding starts to thicken enough to coat the spatula, and is just beginning to bubble, but do not let the pudding start boiling hard. This should take about 15 minutes of cooking for the pudding to thicken. Remove from the heat, and stir the butter in until smooth.
• Set a mesh strainer over a bowl, and press the pudding through the strainer to remove the zest.
• Place a piece of plastic wrap over the bowl, with the plastic resting right against the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Cool in the refrigerator for several hours, or overnight, until well chilled.

Pastry

• Prepare the pie dough as instructed.
• Working with half the dough at a time, roll the dough out thinly, to about 1/8 inch thick, using as much flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the counter and the rolling pin.
• Cut rounds of dough slightly larger than your tart pans. I used a 6 1/2 inch round acrylic cake disk as a template for cutting my dough. My tart pans were 4 1/2 inches in diameter.

• Without stretching the dough, fit the dough rounds into the tart pans. You can either fold the edges over and crimp them, or leave them rough and trim them even later. Note: The reason I didn’t trim the edges before baking, is that the crust can shrink a little as it bakes, and you don’t want the sides of the tart shells to end up too short.
• Place the tart pans on a baking sheet, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
• Lightly prick the dough with a fork, to prevent it from puffing up. Place a small piece of parchment paper in each tart, and fill with dried beans or pie weights.

• Bake the tarts for 20 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven, remove the dried beans and parchment paper. Return the pan to the oven, and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until golden brown.
• When the pastry is cool enough to touch, trim the edges even. Let the tart shells cool completely before filling.

Whipped Cream

• Use an electric mixer to whip the mascarpone/cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla, until fluffy and thick.
• Fit a disposable piping bag with tip 1M, and fill with the whipped cream.

Assembly

• Fill the cooled pastry with the grapefruit pudding, then pipe the whipped cream on top.
• These tarts can be assembled and refrigerated up to 1 day in advance. Keep the leftovers refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Filling Variations

• Lime or Lemon. For a lime or lemon version of these tarts, simply replace the grapefruit zest and juice with lime or lemon zest and juice. You could also try an orange version, but since orange juice is sweeter, you’ll likely want to reduce the sugar a little.
• Citrus. See my citrus sour cream pie for ideas on blending different citrus juices to make a delicious custard filling.
• Banana. To make a banana custard filling, see my banana cream pie recipe.
• Coconut. To make a coconut custard filling, see my coconut cream pie recipe.
• Chocolate. To make a chocolate cream filling, see my chocolate cream pie recipe.
• Strawberry. To make a strawberry cream filling, see my strawberry orange cream pie recipe.

Crust Variations

• Graham Cracker Crust. For a crumbly graham cracker crust, see my lemon icebox pie tarts.
• Shortcrust Pastry. For a cookie-like shortcrust pastry, see my post on how to make shortbread tart crust.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long can grapefruit tarts be refrigerated?

These tarts will be good for about 2 days. After 2 days, the filling can start to break down and soften the crust.

Will this recipe work as one big tart?

Yes, it will, but you’ll need to add more cornstarch to the filling. Since individual tarts are just eaten with a fork or spoon, the pudding can be fairly soft and loose. A pie or tart that’s going to be sliced into servings needs to be thick enough to hold its shape. Increase the cornstarch by several tablespoons to thicken the filling a little more.

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