Food

Bake a tart, surprise your mum!

By Jaci Hicken

May 26, 2026

Over the next five Jaci Can Cook columns together, we will make a French fruit tart. This week we will start by making the sweet shortcrust pastry for the tart case. Photo by Jaci Hicken

Jaci Hicken, our seasoned journalist and trained chef, shares her wealth of knowledge on growing, cooking and preserving home-grown produce. This week, Jaci is starting a journey to bake a French fruit tart.

Would you like a piece of tart?

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And I can’t help it, but here’s a very private joke — and I’m not talking about my mother.

Over the next five Jaci can cook columns together, we will be baking that tart, a French Fruit tart, so you can have a piece.

This week, we start by making the sweet shortcrust pastry, then in ensuing weeks we will bake the tart case, followed by diplomat cream and clear cake glaze.

Lastly, we will build the tart and finish it off with fresh or preserved fruit.

Let's start …

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Ingredients

140g butter — you can use unsalted if you want.

100g icing sugar, sifted

1 egg

A pinch of salt

250g plain flour

25g almond meal

The ingredients for Jaci's sweet shortcrust pastry Photo by Jaci Hicken

Method

Step 1: cream butter and icing sugar using a spatula.

The butter will need to be at room temperature and pliable, and the icing sugar sifted.

You can do this using a handheld mixer, which I did for the second batch.

Normally, I would make four times the recipe and use the bench stand mixmaster for steps one and two.

You can use a handheld mixer to cream the butter and sugar, then mix in the egg more easily. Photo by Jaci Hicken

Step 2: crack the egg in a small bowl and beat. Mix the beaten egg through the butter and sugar mixture.

Step 3: sift together the flour and almond meal. Mix into the butter mixture, using a spatula.

Place the dough on a lightly floured board and knead lightly until smooth.

Step 4: wrap in plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for at least one hour, preferably overnight.

Before using, bring to room temperature, removing from the fridge two hours before you need to bake.

This recipe makes one 23cm round tart case.

In the next Jaci Can Cook column, we will be baking the tart case, so if you want to save your pastry until then, label it and pop it in the freezer.

Having sweet-crust pastry in the freezer is always handy, as you never know when Mum might pop around and someone will need a piece of tart.

Enjoy.

— Jaci

Are you following along, baking a French fruit tart? Do you have a photo of your creation to share? Share it with Jaci at jaci.hicken@mmg.com.au