Vegan Fruit Tart

A vegan fruit tart made with a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread crust, filled with a sweet cream cheese, and topped with glazed berries for the perfect springtime treat. Bring this refreshing dessert to your next garden party or wedding shower. 

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This post is sponsored by Go Veggies. All thoughts and opinions are, as always, my own.

Happy Monday, my friends!

Let’s get this week started off in sweet buttery fashion.

How do we do that?

Why, with a vegan fruit tart, of course! Made with a buttery lemon shortbread crust, filled with sweet coconut cream cheese, and topped with assorted fresh berries, this is a fruit tart to get you excited about Monday morning.

Wanna take a closer look? Let’s dig in! 

WHAT IS A VEGAN FRUIT TART?

This vegan fruit tart recipe is adapted from one of my very first recipes on the blog.

The original recipe idea came from my favorite childhood desserts – fruit pizza. If you are unfamiliar with fruit pizza, then you are missing out, my friend! Fruit pizza is a decadent springtime dessert that combines a shortbread crust, sweet cream cheese “sauce”, and a beautifully glazed fruit topping. It was a dessert I would ask for every year on my birthday and one that I still crave when springtime hits.

These vegan fruit tarts are not really any different than fruit pizza. However, despite the recipe being fairly similar, I love the mini tart alternative; a dessert finger-food perfect for your next garden party, baby shower, or springtime potluck.

BEST CREAM CHEESE FILLING FOR VEGAN FRUIT TART

For the sweet cream cheese filling, I used Go Veggie’s classic cream cheese.

Go Veggie’s cream cheese is made from coconut for a non-GMO, no cholesterol, vegan alternative. I love Go Veggie, a company dedicated to promoting healthier lifestyles by providing delicious plant-based cheese alternatives. Their cheeses have more calcium, equal protein, less fat and fewer calories compared to dairy cheese. Their mission – to help cheese lovers enjoy all their favorite cheesy foods and feel great about it.

And the taste? Well, it’s my favorite plant-based cream cheese on the market making it the cream cheese of choice for this vegan fruit tart.

Beyond delicious sweet cream cheese filling, we want to get that elusive buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, shortbread crust. How do you do that?

TIPS FOR MAKING A PERFECT VEGAN FRUIT TART

• Use high-quality non-dairy butter. You want your butter to have a natural buttery taste with a similarly low melting point to dairy butter. I recommend this brand.
• Do not over mix the dough. Once you add the flour, mix it until it just starts coming together.  At that point, turn it out onto a floured work surface and bring it together with your hands.
• 2 times is enough. If you are cutting out shapes (rather than using a mold) don’t roll it out more than twice. After that, the dough will begin to get tough and you’ll lose that amazing shortbread flakiness.
• Chill your dough. Make sure to chill your dough for at least 15 minutes before baking it. This is so the butter will hold up in the oven and the cookie will keep the shape.
• Bake at a lower temperature.  For that soft center with a slightly crisp outside, don’t put your oven above 325F.
• Do not overbake. Once those edges have just begun browning pull them out. The cookie will continue to harden as it cools.
• Get them cooling. Transfer them from the baking sheet to a wire cooling rack as soon as you can (allowing just a few minutes out of the oven to firm up) so that they don’t continue to bake on the baking sheet.
• Eat them the same day. The best shortbread should be eaten the same day it’s made. Pretty quickly the cookie will lose it’s flaky, heavenly goodness.

SERVING AND STORING VEGAN FRUIT TART

These vegan fruit tarts are best eaten the same day. If you do want to make them in advance, you can make the crust and cream cheese filling up to two days in advance. Store them separately. The filling should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The tart shells should be covered and stored at room temperature. When ready to eat, just assemble and serve!

There you have it. All we need now is a handful of fresh berries and we have ourselves a sweet, buttery, vegan fruit tart – a dessert to welcome in spring and get this week off on the right foot.

Ready to get started? Let’s get baking!

Vegan Fruit Tart

A vegan fruit tart made with a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread crust, filled with sweet cream cheese, and topped with glazed berries for the perfect springtime treat. Bring this refreshing dessert to your next garden party or wedding shower. 

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Chilling Time

15 mins

Total Time

1 hr 5 mins

 

5 from 8 votes

Print

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, French
Keyword: Vegan Fruit Tart
Servings: 12 people
Calories: 247 kcal
Author: Sarah McMinn

Ingredients

Shortbread Crust

• 1/2 cup vegan butter
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• zest of 1/2 lemon

Cream Cheese Filling

• 8 ounces GO VEGGIE cream cheese
• 1 can full-fat coconut milk, solids skimmed off
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Fruit Topping

• 2 cups mixed berries

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a mini tart pan with oil and set aside. You can also use (4) 4" tart shells.

2. To make the crust, beat the vegan butter with a hand mixer or in a stand-up mixer until light and fluffy (3-5 minutes), scraping the sides as needed. Add powdered sugar and beat again for another 2-3 minutes until well blended. Scrap down the sides and add flour and lemon zest. Mix on low until just combined. Be careful not to over-mix.

3. Place about 2 tablespoons of dough in each tart mold. Press down evenly on the sides and bottom so that dough is between 1/8-14" thick. If you are using 4" tart shells, roll the dough out on a floured surface to the same thickness. Cut circles slightly larger than molds and place inside greased tart pans, pressing lightly all around to snugly fill mold.

4. Poke holes in the bottom of the dough and chill dough in the freezer for at least 15 minutes while making the filling. 

5. To make the filling, scoop out the solids from the coconut milk (top 1/2 of the can) into a medium-sized bowl. Add vegan cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla and blend with a hand mixer until completely smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.  

6. Remove dough from freezer and bake for 15-20 minutes until dough starts to become golden around the edges. Remove from oven. Let tart shells cool in the pan for 3-5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. 

7. Scoop or pipe cream cheese filling into tart shells, about 2/3 full, and spread evenly. 

8. Top with fresh berries and serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve. These are best made the same day. 

Nutrition Facts

Vegan Fruit Tart

Amount Per Serving

Calories 247 Calories from Fat 162

% Daily Value*

Fat 18g28%

Saturated Fat 9g56%

Sodium 138mg6%

Potassium 95mg3%

Carbohydrates 19g6%

Fiber 2g8%

Sugar 8g9%

Protein 3g6%

Vitamin A 370IU7%

Vitamin C 1mg1%

Calcium 22mg2%

Iron 1.8mg10%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.