Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts

These easy Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts have a sugar cookie crust, creamy lemon filling, and topped with fresh, seasonal fruit! These fruit tarts are a fun and surprisingly simple spring or summer dessert!

Coronado in San Diego is one of my favorite quaint beach towns. This charming beach community is home to the Hotel Del, which is a beautiful hotel overlooking the water. Outside of the hotel is an outdoor cafe and restaurant that serves the prettiest desserts I have ever seen.

Somewhere around the age of 8 or 9, we went down to Coronado for the day and ended up sitting on the patio near the cafe. Out of all the desserts the cafe served, all I could think about was the fruit tarts sitting on the top shelf of the dessert display.

To this day, that very well might be the best fruit tart I have ever eaten. Perhaps it was the atmosphere—spending a fun filled day with my family relaxing at the beach. Or, maybe it was because it was the first time I’d tried a fruit tart. Regardless of the reason, that fruit tart is ingrained in my mind as one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

This Sugar Cookie Fruit Tart combines some of my loves all in one recipe: Sugar Cookies, Lemon Cream, and Fresh Fruit (which is also ahhh-mazing on a Lemon Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza!). While this is a non-traditional fruit tart, it is still incredibly delicious and worthy of the tart name.

A fruit tart is composed of three parts: the crust, the custard, and the fruit. And I can’t really tell you which component is my favorite. But, I really do like crust, which is actually what inspired this tart-baking day. After making my lemon sugar cookies, I realized that sugar cookie dough as a crust would be so good.

And, I was in the mood for a dessert I could whip up at a moment’s notice–hence sugar cookie fruit tarts. Instead of a traditional custard, I opted for instant vanilla pudding (I use this all of the time! Even in cookie recipes and cream pies!), which is a perfect custard substitute when you’re in a hurry. Mix in some fresh whipped cream or frozen whipped topping, and you’ve got a light, airy instant custard.

I made mini tarts from tart pans from Pampered Chef. I was at a Pampered Chef party with my mom, and they were just so cute. I didn’t order them, but they wound up under the Christmas tree a few months later–my mom knows me too well! Of course, you can make one large tart or make teeny ones in muffin cups, but these mini tarts are too cute! And for me, the perfect sized dessert!

I’m crazy about these!

Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts

Prep: 30 minutes mins

Cook: 10 minutes mins

Total: 40 minutes mins

These easy Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts have a sugar cookie crust, creamy lemon filling, and topped with fresh, seasonal fruit! These fruit tarts are a fun and surprisingly simple spring or summer dessert!

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Ingredients

 

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Cookie Dough

• ▢ 1/4 cup butter, softened
• ▢ 1/2 cup sugar
• ▢ 1 egg
• ▢ 1/4 cup almond milk, you can use regular milk as well
• ▢ 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• ▢ 1/2 tsp almond extract
• ▢ 1 3/4 cup flour
• ▢ 2 tsp baking powder
• ▢ 1/4 tsp salt
• ▢ 1 tsp lemon zest
• ▢ 2 Tbsp lemon juice

Pudding

• ▢ 3.4 oz box of Vanilla instant pudding
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups milk
• ▢ 2 Tbsp lemon juice

Whipped Cream

• ▢ 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• ▢ 1 Tbps lemon zest

Fruit

• ▢ Any kind in season

Extras

• ▢ Baking Beans
• ▢ Parchment Paper

Instructions

 

Dough

• Preheat oven to 350.
• By hand, using a standing mixer, or a hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fully combined. Add in lemon zest, lemon juice, milk, egg, vanilla, and almond. Stir.
• In a separate bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Mix dry ingredients into wet.
• Gradually, add more flour (about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup) until dough feels manageable and not sticky.
• Lightly grease 8 mini tart tins, press cookie dough in tart pans, about 1/4" thick. Place parchment paper on top of dough and then place baking beans atop each tart pan. The added weight will ensure the dough will not rise too much.
• Bake for about 8-10 or until done.

Pudding

• Follow boxed instructions, or whisk instant pudding mix into 2 cups of milk. Whisk about 5 minutes. Add in the lemon juice, and give it a quick whisk.

Whipped Cream

• Pour heavy cream into a bowl, and with a hand mixer or a standing mixer, whip the cream until it reaches soft peaks, about 5-8 minutes.
• Gently fold cream into the pudding mix. Because the tart is already sweet enough, there is no need to add any sugar to the cream mixture.

Last Step

• When the cookies are cooled, pull out of tart pans. Spoon in pudding mixture, about a 1/4 cup in each tart shell. Top with sliced fruit.
• Enjoy!

The nutrition facts provided are calculated using a third-party tool and are estimates only. Actual nutritional content may vary based on the ingredients and brands you use, as well as portion sizes. For accurate results, please consult a registered dietitian or nutritionist.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Make sure to tag me on Instagram and leave a rating below and let me know how it turned out!

Here are some other sugar cookie recipes I love:

Soft-Baked Cutout Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza