Tart

A tart is a baked dish with a filling set on a pastry base and an open top, meaning no pastry covers the filling. The pastry is typically shortcrust, and the filling can be sweet or savory, though today’s tarts are often fruit-based, sometimes with custard. A tartlet is a small tart, like an egg tart. The terms "tart," "flan," and "pie" overlap, with no clear boundaries between them.

The French word tarte can mean either pie or tart, as both are similar except that a pie usually covers the filling with pastry, while flans and tarts leave it exposed. Tarts likely came from a tradition of layering food or developed from medieval pie making. Enriched dough, like shortcrust, is thought to have become common around 1550, about 200 years after pies. At that time, tarts were seen as high cuisine, popular among nobility, unlike the commoner’s pie.

Originally savory with meat fillings, culinary tastes shifted toward sweet tarts, which now often feature fruit and custard. Early medieval tarts generally had meat, but later ones were based on fruit and custard. An early example is the Italian crostata, dating to at least the mid-15th century, described as a rustic, free-form open fruit tart.

Description

Tarts are typically free-standing with a firm pastry base made from flour, a thick filling, and perpendicular sides. Pies may have softer pastry, a looser filling, and sloped sides, requiring a pie plate for serving.

Varieties

Many types of tarts exist, including treacle tart, meringue tart, tarte Tatin, and Bakewell tart. A jam tart uses jam instead of fresh fruit. Tarte Tatin is an upside-down tart made with apples, other fruit, or onions. Savory tarts include quiche, a family of tarts with a mostly custard filling; Italian crostata; German Zwiebelkuchen and Alsace Tarte à l’oignon (onion tarts); and Swiss cheese tart made from Gruyère.