German Fruit Tart Recipe

Summertime is a fabulous time with overflowing seasonal produce, especially sweet fruits. Peaches, plums, berries, and eventually apples are the delicious ware of the grocery store, farmer’s market, and roadside stand in the summertime. It’s easy to eat these fruits up without cooking them into a dish but what if you have a plethora that is about to go bad?

Consider today’s experiment: German Fruit Tart. This recipe is an easy way to use up the surplus of any fruit that you have on hand, and, like all my favorite recipes, it is super easy to make with great results.

German Fruit Tart
(Borrowed from Taste of Home Magazine, originally “German Plum Tart”)

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened (please, please, please don’t substitute anything for the butter; it will not taste the same)
  • 4 tablespoons sugar, divided
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 3/4 – 1 cup flour
  • 2 lbs fruit, sliced or quartered (depending on the size) that equals about four cups
  1. Cream the butter and the sugar together to that it becomes light and fluffy. This is one of my favorite parts, seeing the solids transform. Bean in the egg yolk.
  2. Gradually add the flour, a little bit at a time, until it forms a soft dough.
  3. Press the dough in the bottom and up sides of a pie plate. This recipe makes enough dough for a 10-inch pie plate, but you can a smaller plate and it’ll be just fine.
  4. Arrange fruit slices or quarters in dough with skin sides up. To fit all your juicy fruit soon turned gorgeous dessert, overlap the edges. Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of sugar over the top of the fruit.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 – 45 minutes. It’s done when the crust is golden brown and the fruit is tender when poked with a fork.

Note: If you are using apples, make sure to slice them as thinly as possible or they’ll be crunchy when the crust is ready to come out.

Seriously, this is so easy and simple to make. However, the pie looks like a million bucks and people will think you are a culinary genius when they see it. The most time will be spent in cutting up the fruit and you don’t even have to peel them! (Anyone else out there hate peeling?)

I’m made this with plums and apples with fantastic results. But I can envision easily making it with peaches, fresh apricots, blackberries, and pears. I’d love to hear your fruit combinations after you’ve tried this.

What fruits are local to your area? What interesting combinations can you imagine going on top of this buttery crust?