Classic French Fruit Tart

Instructions

1. Make the pâte sucrée dough: In a bowl, whisk together flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt.
2. Add cold, cubed butter and use your fingertips or a pastry cutter to blend until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with small pea-sized pieces of butter.
3. Whisk the egg yolk and ice water together, then add to the flour mixture and gently mix until the dough begins to come together in clumps, avoiding overworking.
4. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead just to bring it together.
5. Form into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
7. Roll chilled dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch circle and gently transfer it to a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, pressing into edges and trimming excess dough.
8. Prick the bottom with a fork, line with parchment paper, and fill with pie weights or dried beans.
9. Bake for 15 minutes, remove weights and parchment, then bake another 10-15 minutes until golden and fully cooked.
10. Remove tart shell from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
11. Make the pastry cream: In a medium saucepan, combine milk and scraped vanilla bean seeds and pod; heat over medium until hot but not boiling.
12. In a separate bowl, whisk sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks until smooth.
13. Slowly pour about half of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to temper the eggs.
14. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with remaining milk and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and reaches 170–175°F (77–79°C), about 3–5 minutes.
15. Remove from heat, discard vanilla pod, whisk in butter until melted and smooth.
16. Transfer pastry cream to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap pressed directly on surface, and chill until cold, at least 1 hour.
17. Once the tart shell and pastry cream are fully cooled, spread pastry cream evenly into the tart shell.
18. Arrange fresh mixed fruit decoratively on top of pastry cream.
19. For the glaze, gently warm apricot jam with water until melted and smooth, then strain and brush glaze over fruit to give a shiny finish.
20. Refrigerate tart until ready to serve.