Grape Tart with Mascarpone Custard and Phyllo

Grapes are in season right now and this grape tart features plump and juicy grapes nestled inside a custard of mascarpone cheese with flaky phyllo as the crust.

Let’s be honest, you don’t see grapes all that often showing up in desserts, but why not? They’re naturally sweet, crisp and juicy and when baked into a dessert their sweetness gets even more concentrated.

To make this tart you need to macerate the grapes first by piercing them, tossing in sugar and letting them sit covered for a while at room temperature.

This grape tart can be made with any pastry bottom of your choice, you can use puff pastry, a shortcrust pastry or what I’ve chosen, phyllo.

I like using phyllo, it’s so forgiving and easy to use once you get the hang of it. Using phyllo also gives you a wonderful crunchy crust to bite into, a nice contrast to the creamy mascarpone custard.

You can also flavor the custard mixture with a bit of liquor or extract such as vanilla or almond or even some citrus zest if you so desire.

Hurry up and get some grapes so you can make this dreamy tart, your friends and family will thank you!

Creamy custard with a sweet burst of intense grape flavor, what’s not to love?

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Grape Tart with Mascarpone Custard and Phyllo

 

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Author: Marie

Ingredients

• red grapes, enough to fill the bottom of a 9' springform pan with removable bottom. ( I like to make sure of the amount of grapes I'm going to use by picking them off the vine and placing them in the pan just to see if I have enough as a tester.)
• ¼ cup of sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling on top of tart
• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons of room temperature mascarpone cheese
• 3 eggs, beaten
• ¼ teaspoon to ½ of vanilla, or extract of your choice, or citrus zest if you choose
• 8 sheets of phyllo dough, defrosted

Instructions

1. MACERATE THE GRAPES AT LEAST 2 HOURS BEFORE
2. Place grapes in a bowl, prick them with a fork, toss in ¼ cup sugar, stir and cover with plastic wrap and let them sit at room temperature, stir occasionally, the granules of sugar should be dissolved and juice forming on the bottom. When finished strain the juice and set aside.
3. FOR THE CUSTARD
4. In a bowl add the eggs and mascarpone, ¼ cup of sugar plus optional extracts or liquor, beat on low speed with a hand mixer until it's nice and smooth.
5. PREPARING THE CRUST ( oven temp at 375 )
6. Grease the bottom and sides of the tart pan with butter.
7. Keeping your phyllo covered and working fast, layer each sheet individually and either brush with melted butter, butter spray or olive oil spray.
8. Continue layers of phyllo covering the bottom and sides of pan with buttering in between. Don't worry if phyllo rips you won't even notice it when it's done.
9. Pace the tart pan on a rimmed baking sheet for easy in and out.
10. Pour the drained grapes onto the tart pan covered in phyllo, bake it for 10 minutes then remove from oven.
11. Pour the mascarpone mixture all over the top of the grapes and sprinkle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.
12. Place back into the oven until the top is slightly golden, the mascarpone mixture sets and the crust is crusty and golden. 30 minutes or so, but ovens do vary so watch it.
13. When finished let it cool down so you can touch it snd remove the bottom.
14. It's ready to serve!

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