This easy-to-make Roasted Grape Lemon Mascarpone Tart combines buttery shortcrust pastry with creamy lemon whipped mascarpone and the fruity, sweet flavours of roasted grapes. It's a perfectly balanced, delicious Summer tart!
You'll know that baking tarts and pies in the Summer is one of my favourite ways to treat my family and friends. Using my foolproof Sweet Shortcrust Pasty Recipe for a melt-in-your-mouth pastry allows for any flavour direction.
My Cherry Almond Pie and Strawberry Sablé Tart are warm weather favourites using seasonal fresh fruit.
This tart is a true delight and I’m so happy to share it with you. Aside from the process of making your own pastry, this tart is incredibly simple and quick to make. The roasted grapes are a revelation! They soften and burst into these mini flavour bombs of juicy, sticky goodness! Absolutely sensational against the rich, smooth velvetiness of the mascarpone filling.
🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Uses basic ingredients. You'll be able to find all the ingredients needed to make this simple tart at your local grocery store.
- Can be made ahead of time. The tart case, filling and roasted grapes can all be made ahead. Just before serving, assemble. It's as simple as that.
- Simple to make. Use store-bought or homemade pastry to make the tart shell. The filling and roasted grapes are both simple components to make.
- Tastes like Summer. The lemon mascarpone filling is rich, creamy and lemony. It sits beautifully alongside the flavourful, juicy sweet grapes.
🧾 Ingredients Needed
The ingredients needed for this Mascarpone Tart are fairly basic but I've made a few helpful notes below.
Sweet Short Crust Pastry
- Dry ingredients - plain flour, powdered icing sugar, lemon zest. Sift the flour and icing sugar to remove any lumps
- Wet ingredients - butter, egg, water. These three ingredients should be cold to ensure the pastry is flakey.
Lemon Mascarpone Filling
- Mascarpone - Found in your local grocery store this Italian cream is thick smooth and divine. At a push, you can replace mascarpone with cream cheese but the taste will be more tangy. Mascarpone needs to be cold prior to mixing.
- Lemon zest and juice - Use fresh lemon for the tangiest citrus taste.
- Cream - Adding a little heavy cream to the whipped mascarpone filling adds a lovely lightness.
- Powdered Icing Sugar - Just enough to add sweetness and flavour to the filling. You can't substitute with regular sugar as the filling will end up grainy.
- Vanilla Extract or vanilla bean paste layers sweetness and depth of flavour to the mascarpone cream.
Roasted Grapes
- Grapes - Choose red or black grapes, or a combination of the two as I've done. If I see Sable grapes in store then I tend to grab those - but choose whatever red or black grapes you have on hand.
- Honey - When roasting the grapes, the sweetness combines with the grape juice and helps the grapes go super juicy and sticky. It's an incredible combo!
- Thyme - The thyme leaves are totally optional but wow - the soft herbiness infused with the juice from the grapes is heavenly.
📖 Variations
- Swap out the fruit: Don't have grapes on hand? Don't worry- any stone fruit can be roasted like plums, apricots and peaches. Alternatively just top with fresh berries if you don't fancy turning on the oven.
- Add lemon curd to the filling: My homemade lemon curd is incredible. Amp up the lemon flavour and mix in ½ cup of lemon curd into the mascarpone cream. You can drizzle more over the top before adding the fruit.
👩🏻🍳 How to Make
*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*
This Lemon Mascarpone Tart recipe is split into 3 separate components. The sweet shortcrust tart shell is fully baked and cooled. There's the lemon mascarpone filling made in one bowl in two minutes. Lastly, the roasted grapes which the oven does most of the work for!!
I'll take you step by step of making this mascarpone tart through process images so that you can successfully make it too.
Sweet Short Crust Pastry
My Sweet Short Crust Pastry Guide has all the step-by-step photos to make this pastry perfectly. I recommend taking a quick look.
STEP 1. Make the dough. Sift the flour, powdered icing sugar, and salt into a large bowl, and rub the butter and flour between your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs.
STEP 2. Stir the beaten egg and water into the flour mixture until it starts to resemble a dough.
STEP 3. Use your hands to bring the dough together and shape it into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
STEP 4. Prepare the tart tin with the dough. Using a rolling, roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface until it's the thickness of a coin and 30cm (12in) in diameter (Image 1). Gently lift the dough into your tart tin (Image 2).
STEP 5. Use your fingers to push the pastry onto the sides of the tin (Image 3). Trim off any excess, then refrigerate for an hour or overnight. Dock the bottom of the tart with a fork (Image 4).
STEP 6. Blind Bake. Place parchment paper in the bottom, and then fill with pie weights and/or rice (Image 5). Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and pie weights. Read more in-depth info in my blind baking guide if you fancy it.
Make an egg wash by whisking the egg and milk together. Brush the base of the tart with the egg wash (Image 6) and bake for another 15 minutes until the pastry is golden (Image 7). Allow the tart shell to cool completely.
TIPS for making pastry: Use cold ingredients, don't overwork the dough, and make sure to rest the dough in the refrigerator (both times!).
Make the Lemon Mascarpone Filling
STEP 7. Mix the filling. Place the mascarpone cheese, cream, icing sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla bean paste in the bowl of an electric stand mixer and beat on medium until light and fluffy (Image 8). Be careful not to overbeat as mascarpone is prone to curdling.
Roast the Grapes
STEP 8. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Place grapes on a baking tray, drizzle honey over and toss lightly together. Scatter thyme leaves over the grapes and place the tray in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until grape skins have just started to burst and juice from the grapes forms a sticky syrup with the honey (Image 9).
Assemble Lemon Mascarpone Tart
STEP 9. Add filling to base. Spoon the mascarpone mixture into the tart shell and spread it out evenly with an offset spatula. Refrigerate for 30 minutes (Images 10 & 11)
STEP 10. Top with fruit. Place roasted grapes onto the mascarpone filling and spoon the syrup from the base of the baking dish over the grapes. Decorate with another drizzle of honey and thyme leaves (Image 12). Slice and serve immediately.
🥣 How To Serve
The Lemon Mascarpone Tart is best served straight away. When the mascarpone filling is chilled and the grapes have just been placed on top of the tart. Keep the tart refrigerated until ready to slice if there is time between assembling and serving.
💭 Recipe Pro Tips
- Keep pastry ingredients cold. This pastry recipe benefits from cold butter, cold egg, and cold water.
- Be careful not to overwork the dough. This will only activate the gluten in the flour which will cause shrinkage when baking and create a tough pastry.
- Refrigerate the dough after forming and when the tart pan is lined with it.
- Don't overwhip the mascarpone filling. It'll become grainy if you do.
- Roast the grapes for long enough so they become sticky. This draws out their flavour.
📋 Recipe FAQs
You can't make a direct swap with cream to replace the mascarpone. Cream is supposed to accompany the mascarpone in the filling and not make up the majority of the filling. You can use cream cheese instead but it'll have more of a tangy taste.
Your local grocery store should stock mascarpone in the fridge section near speciality cheeses.
No, you don't put you'll be missing out on a lot of additional flavour. Instead of grapes, you could substitute them for strawberries or peaches.
❄️ Storage and Freezer Instructions
To store: Store this Mascarpone Tart by wrapping it well in plastic wrap and storing it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
🌸 More Spring Recipes
If you tried this Grape Lemon Mascarpone Tart Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Roasted Grape Mascarpone Tart Recipe
Ingredients
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry Tart Shell
- 220 g plain flour (all-purpose)
- 40 g powdered icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 110 g unsalted butter, cold and chopped into small cubes
- 1 large egg, cold, lightly beaten
- 15-30 ml water, ice cold
Lemon Mascarpone Filling
- 500 g mascarpone cheese, cold
- 120 ml double cream (heavy cream), cold
- 30 g powdered icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 lemon zest
Roasted Grapes
- 400 g Sable Grapes, red and/or black
- 45 ml runny honey
- 4 Sprigs thyme leaves
Instructions
Make Sweet Sweet Shortcrust Pastry Tart Shell
- Rub the butter into the flour. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Add the butter and toss until the cubes are coated. Rub the mixture together between your fingers until it reaches a breadcrumb consistency with a few hazelnut-sized pieces of butter still visible.
- Add egg and water. Make a well in the centre and add the egg. Using a fork, mix the egg into the flour. Add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of the ice-cold water, and use your fingertips to bring the dough together. If the dough isn’t clumping together, add more water sparingly.
- Bring the dough together and refrigerate. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured countertop, and use floured hands to shape the dough into a ball, taking care not to overwork it. Flatten slightly into a disc, and wrap well in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for at least 1 hour to let the dough rest.
- Roll out dough. Remove the chilled dough disc from the fridge and set it aside on your countertop for 15 minutes or so to allow the dough to warm up slightly so it’s easier to roll out. Trying to roll dough that is too cold will cause the edges to crack. To roll out, lightly flour your countertop and rolling pin, and using firm, even strokes, roll from the centre outward, turning the dough a quarter turn every few strokes. Roll the dough out to the thickness of a coin (⅛-inch (3-mm) thick) and into a 12-inch (30-cm) circle.
- Prepare dough in the tart tin. Flour the base of a 9-inch (23-cm) shallow fluted tart pan with a removable base, and gently lift the dough and place it into the prepared pan. Use your fingers to push the dough up the sides of the pan and into the grooves. Using a sharp knife, trim off the excess dough from the rim. Refrigerate the prepared tart shell for at least 1 hour to allow the dough to relax further. (My preference is to leave the shell overnight in the fridge and continue with the recipe the next day. If you do this, cover it well in plastic wrap to ensure that the dough doesn’t dry out.)
- Blind bake. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Once the dough is chilled, prick the tart base all over with a fork, and then line it with parchment paper and fill it with pie weights all the way up the sides. Blind bake for 15 minutes, and then remove the parchment paper and pie weights. Return the tart back to the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until the base is dry and golden in colour. Remove from the oven, and leave the tart shell to cool fully.
Make Lemon Mascarpone Filling
- Place the mascarpone cheese, cream, powdered icing sugar, vanilla bean paste, lemon juice, and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric stand mixer and beat on medium until light and fluffy. Refrigerate until needed.
Roast Grapes
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C (350°F). Place grapes on a baking tray, drizzle honey over, and toss lightly together. Scatter thyme leaves over the grapes and place in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until grape skins have just started to burst and juice from the grapes forms a sticky syrup with the honey.
Assemble
- Spoon mascarpone mixture into the tart shell and spread out evenly with an offset spatular. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Once chilled, place roasted grapes onto the mascarpone filling and spoon the syrup from the base of the baking dish over the grapes. Decorate with another drizzle of honey and thyme leaves. Slice and serve immediately.
All recipes are developed and tested in Metric grams. I strongly recommend that you bake using digital scales for a more accurate result. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.
Notes
- Keep pastry ingredients cold. This pastry recipe benefits from cold butter, cold egg, and cold water.
- Be careful not to overwork the dough. This will only activate the gluten in the flour which will cause shrinkage when baking and create a tough pastry.
- Refrigerate the dough after forming and when the tart pan is lined with it.
- Don't overwhip the mascarpone filling. It'll become grainy if you do.
- Roast the grapes for long enough so they become sticky. This draws out their flavour.
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