Top 22 Tart Recipes: Fruit, Chocolate, Savoury and Mini

Fruit tarts are the brightest, most photogenic corner of the tart world, and they are almost always an assembly job rather than a bake-it-all-together one. The shell goes in fully blind-baked and cooled, the filling is a thick pastry cream or set custard chilled until firm, and the fruit goes on raw and ripe at the very end. Spread the cool cream into the cool shell, then arrange strawberries, berries, mango, peach, apple slices or citrus segments in a single neat layer, packing them close so each slice carries fruit. The finishing move that separates a home tart from a patisserie one is the glaze: a warm, sieved apricot or redcurrant jam brushed over the fruit makes it glossy and stops it drying or oxidising. Timing is everything here — because pastry cream slowly softens the base, assemble fruit tarts close to serving rather than hours ahead, or the crisp bottom you worked for goes soft. For cooked-fruit styles like a French apple tart, slice the fruit thin and even so it bakes through, and glaze it the same way for shine. Standouts here include C03 : Blueberry Cream Cheese Tart and C02 : Baked Fruit Tart, plus Baked Brie & Apricot Phyllo Tart.

This is the rich, silky heart of the collection, where the filling does the talking — set custards, smooth chocolate ganache, caramel, coconut and treacle. The two main techniques pull in opposite directions and it helps to know which you are doing. Baked custards, including egg tarts, treacle tarts and creme-based fillings, want gentle, even heat: bake low, around 150 to 160C, and pull the tart while the centre still has a slight wobble, because it sets as it cools and high heat only curdles or cracks it. Strain the custard before pouring for a glass-smooth finish. No-bake chocolate tarts, by contrast, set by ratio: pour hot cream over chopped dark chocolate in roughly equal weights, stir into a glossy ganache, add a knob of butter for shine, then chill in a pre-baked shell until just firm. Caramel and banoffee fillings sit between the two, cooked to a deep amber and the right firmness so they hold a clean edge. Whichever you make, cool and set the filling fully before slicing with a hot, dry knife. Standouts here include Coconut Tart and C03 : EGG TART FILLING, plus C03 : PORTUGESE EGG TART FILLING.

Savoury tarts and quiches prove the tart shell is just as happy holding a meal as a dessert, and they follow the custard rules with a couple of important additions. The base is the same crisp, blind-baked shortcrust — bake it fully first, because a savoury custard is wet and will sog an unbaked base. The filling is eggs whisked with cream or milk, seasoned more boldly than you think you need, and poured over cheese, herbs and cooked vegetables. The single biggest mistake is adding wet vegetables raw: mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, onions and leeks all release a lot of water, so cook them down first to drive off moisture, or the quiche weeps and the pastry turns soggy underneath. Do not overfill the shell; the custard should sit just below the rim so it sets evenly without spilling. Bake at a moderate heat until the centre is just set with a faint wobble, then let the tart rest for ten minutes so it firms up and slices cleanly. Served warm or cold, these carry a lunch, a picnic or a light supper. Standouts here include Leek and Ham Tart and Pumpkin and Cheese Tart, plus Easy Vegetable Tart.

Mini tarts and tartlets are where tart-making turns playful and party-ready, and they reward a slightly firmer, sweeter pastry that holds its shape in small tins. Press or line the chilled dough into individual cups or a tartlet tray, then blind-bake exactly as you would a large shell but for noticeably less time, watching closely because small shells colour from pale to too-dark in a minute. From there the fillings span the whole collection in miniature: spoonfuls of jam for classic jam tarts, almond frangipane that bakes from raw alongside the pastry into a Bakewell, ganache or nutella for a rich bite, lemon curd, or pastry cream topped with a single berry. The rule to remember is which fillings bake and which do not — frangipane and jam go into a raw or part-baked shell and bake together, while ganache, curd and fresh fruit go into a fully baked, cooled shell. Their small size makes them fast to bake, easy to portion and simple to gift or pass around, which is why tartlets are the natural choice whenever you are feeding a crowd. Standouts here include Mini Tart Perfection and Mini nuts tart.

Beyond the headline categories sit the tarts that refuse to be filed neatly — rustic free-form galettes, no-bake biscuit-based numbers, custard-and-fruit hybrids, and the showpieces that borrow a technique from each cluster. They all lean on the same fundamentals you have already met: a crisp, properly baked or chilled base, a filling cooled and set before slicing, and an honest respect for moisture so nothing turns the pastry soggy. Choosing your next one is mostly about matching effort to the occasion. Reach for a quick jam tartlet, a no-bake ganache tart or a rustic fruit galette on a busy day, and save the multi-component builds — blind-baked shell, homemade pastry cream, glazed fresh fruit — for a weekend when you can give each stage its time. Pay attention to how the filling sets, since a softer custard wants a shallower shell and a firm ganache slices best slightly chilled. Think of this group as the natural next step once the classics feel automatic, the recipes that quietly earn a regular place in your baking once you have tried them. Standouts here include Camembert and Red Cabbage Tart and Zucchini Tart with Homemade Pesto, plus Lime Tart Pie.