Are you looking for a light, summer dessert loaded with fresh berries? Then look no further! This Summer Berry Mascarpone Tart is made with a sweet and delicate shortbread crust, a creamy mascarpone filling, and is topped with sweetly glazed mixed berries. Before I begin, I do want to remind everyone that I only go over the most complicated details of the recipes in my blog posts, if you’d like to see the full recipe, please use the “Jump to Recipe” button above.
Notes on making the crust:
The crust does require a little time and patience but the good news is that you can make it ahead and get back to it when you have a moment. Once made, it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. The first step to preparing the crust is to prepare the ingredients. Cut the unsalted butter up into 1/2 inch pieces, this size will make it easier to rub into the dry ingredients.
Once the butter is cut up, I like to place it in the freezer to chill while preparing the other ingredients. Speaking of chilling, I also like to place the water into the freezer to make it ice-cold. You may be asking “What’s with the cold obsession?”. Well, with butter as one of the main ingredients, the dough can become a sloppy, unmanageable mess if it becomes too warm. During the process of making a tart or pie crust, it is incredibly important to keep the dough cold, especially before baking!
Once the ingredients are prepped, whisk the dry ingredients together. Then, cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or your hands! The goal is to rub all the butter into the dry ingredients to make crumbs the size of peas. Once you have the crumbs, pour in 2 tablespoons of ice-cold water. Use this to form a dough, if your dough doesn’t hold, add another tablespoon of water. Using your hands, form the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 24 hours before rolling out.
Notes on rolling out the dough:
Before rolling out the dough, prepare the 9 inch tart pan. Grease the pan with nonstick baking spray or butter. It’s important to grease all the nooks and crannies in the tart pan. If you have fluted edges, make sure to grease inside the flutes too. Right, now we can move onto rolling out the dough.
The first step is to take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit for 15 minutes to warm up a little. If you try roll it out too soon, it will crack because it’s too hard and not workable. Once the dough is workable, sprinkle flour over a clean surface and roll your dough until it is large enough to cut out a 10.5 inch circle, then actually cut out the 10.5 inch circle. Place the circle into your greased tart pan and press it gently into the pan. Poke the bottom of the tart with a fork.
Cover the tart crust with aluminum foil, make sure to cover the edges as well. Press the foil into the corners of the tart, making sure it fits snug. Place the tart into the freezer to cool while the oven preheats to 400℉ . Ideally the tart should be in the freezer for around 10 to 15 minutes before baking.
Notes on baking the tart’s crust:
Once the oven is preheated, fill the aluminum foil with pie weights or dry rice. I use dry rice and like to fill up to where the crust ends. Bake the crust at 400℉ for 17 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, lift up the aluminum foil with the pie weights or rice using the edges of the foil. Brush the crust with egg white and sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar. The egg white is used to seal the crust and prevent it from getting soggy from the filling. Return the tart to the oven, uncovered and continue to bake for 6 to 8 minutes. I keep a close eye on it at this point, making sure the crust doesn’t burn. I like to start watching around 4 minutes into this final stage of baking.
Remove the crust from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Do not fill the tart until it is completely cool. I like to place the crust onto a baking sheet and into the freezer, until it’s cooled, to speed this process up.
Notes on making the filling:
To make the mascarpone filling, first make sure the mascarpone cheese and all ingredients (except the heavy whipping cream) are at room temperature. Mascarpone cheese can curdle easily, so we try to prevent that. To begin making the filling, use an electric mixer to whip the heavy whipping cream to the soft peak stage, set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer on low, beat the mascarpone and sugar until just combined. Add in the vanilla extract. Lastly, drizzle in the lemon juice. Lemon juice is acidic, and like I said, mascarpone cheese curdles easily, so it can cause the filling to curdle. Should your filling curdle, place it over a pot of hot water and slowly heat it up, whisking continuously until smooth.
Fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone filling and pour into your cooled tart shell, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours but up to 2 days. Only make the Mixed Berry topping when ready to serve the tart.
Notes on making the topping:
To make the topping, first prepare your berries. Wash your raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, then allow to dry. Next, slice your strawberries. If you have a spring-form tart pan, remove the tart from your tart pan. If you have prepared your tart in a tart pan without a removable bottom, it’s okay to leave the tart in the pan. Decorate your tart by placing sliced strawberries, whole raspberries and whole blueberries around the edges.
To make the glaze, combine the raspberry preserves and water and heat up over the stove or in the microwave until it tales on a syrup consistency. Drizzle the preserves over the tart and place the tart back into the refrigerator for 15 minutes to cool. Serve immediately with whipped cream.
How store this Summer Berry Mascarpone Tart:
Store this Summer Berry Mascarpone Tart covered, in the refrigerator for up to 1 day after decorating with berries. The tart without the berries can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. Do not freeze.
Summer Berry Mascarpone Tart
Ingredients
To make the crust
- 1 1/4 (150g) cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/4 (30g) cup Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 10 tbsp Unsalted Butter – cut into pieces (1/2 inch or 1 1/2 cm in size) and chilled.
- 2-3 tbsp Ice-cold Water
- 1 Egg White
- 1 tbsp Granulated Sugar
For the filling
- 8 oz Mascarpone Cheese
- 1/3 (67g) cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
For the Topping
- 1 cup Strawberries – sliced
- 1/2 cup Raspberries
- 1/3 cup Blueberries
- 3 tbsp Raspberry Preserves
- 1 tbsp Water
Whipped Cream (optional)
- 1/3 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1/2 tbsp Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Instructions
To make the crust
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk the flour, powdered sugar and salt together.
- Add in the butter. Using your hands (or pastry cutter), rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles crumbs.
- Add in 2 tablespoons of ice-cold water. Use your hands to press the dough together into a ball. If it is still too dry, add in another tablespoon of water.
- Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour but up to 24 hours.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow to warm up at room temperature for 15 minutes or until the dough is soft enough to roll out.
- In the meantime, grease a 9 inch tart pan with nonstick baking spray or butter. If your tart pan has fluted edges, make sure to get in those.
- Use a rolling pin on a floured surface, to roll dough out evenly until it is only just large enough to cut into a circle with a 10.5 inch diameter. Then cut it into a circle with a 10.5 inch diameter.
- Place the circle into the tart pan and press gently into the corners. This will now be referred to as the tart shell.
- Poke the tart shell with a fork. To make sure the edges are the same height, go down at eye level and inspect. If there are some edges that are higher, use a knife to cut them down.
- Cover the tart shell with aluminum foil, gently pressing in the corners. Cover the edges of the tart too. Place in the freezer while preheating the oven or for at least 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400℉. Once preheated, remove the tart from the freezer and fill the aluminum foil with pie weights or dry rice.
- Bake in the oven for 17 minutes. Remove from the oven, then remove the aluminum foil with the pie weights or rice.
- Brush the tart shell with egg white and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and continue to bake for 6-8 minutes until golden brown, making sure to keep a close eye on the edges and not allowing them to burn.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before filling. To speed this process up, I leave my tart to cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then I put it on a baking sheet and into the freezer to cool completely.
To make the filling
- In a clean bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Set aside.
- In a clean bowl of an electric mixer, on low, beat the mascarpone cheese and sugar together until just combined.
- Add the pure vanilla extract and continue to beat on low. Slowly drizzle in the lemon juice, beating until combined.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer and using a rubber spatula, fold in the whipped cream.
- Pour into the tart shell. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
To make the topping
- When ready to serve, decorate the tart with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.
- Combine the raspberry preserves and water. Microwave for 10 seconds at a time until warm (or heat over the stove). Drizzle over tart.
- Refrigerate for 15 minutes before serving. Serve with whipped cream (optional). Eat within 24 hours of decorating with berries.
To make the whipped cream
- In a clean bowl of an electric mixer, beat the heavy whipping cream, sugar and vanilla together.
- Decorate tart or serve separately.
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