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Individual grapefruit tarts, with grapefruit pudding and piped whipped cream cheese.

Grapefruit Tarts

Heather Smoke
Crisp and buttery pastry shells, filled with grapefruit pudding and topped with mascarpone whipped cream.

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5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Chill Time 4 hours
Total Time 5 hours 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings6

Equipment

  • 6 4 1/2 inch Tart Pans with Removable Bottoms
  • Pastry Cutter
  • Rolling Pin
  • Electric Mixer (Stand or Hand-Held)
  • Saucepan
  • Piping Bag + Tip 1M

Ingredients
 

Grapefruit Pudding

  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large red grapefruit (or 2 small/medium grapefruits)
  • 3 tbsp corn starch
  • 3 large egg yolks (save the whites for another use)
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter

Pastry

Whipped Cream

  • 2 oz mascarpone cheese (or block style full fat cream cheese), softened to room temperature
  • ¾ cup cold heavy whipping cream
  • 3 tbsp powdered sugar
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract

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.
  • 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

  • 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.
Keyword Grapefruit, Pastry, Pie, Pudding, Tart
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