Beautiful Breakfast Tart (Gluten Free)

This Beautiful Breakfast Tart has to be the most delightful breakfast idea ever with a nutty granola crust filled with thick Greek yogurt, and topped with a colorful sunburst of fresh juicy fruit.  Yes it looks too beautiful to eat, but dig in anyway ~ it may be beautiful, but it’s still breakfast!

.  Use a knife and pie server, or just go at with a big spoon.

All my life I’ve loved mosaics and geometric patterns,  Remember kaleidoscopes?  The Spirograph?  Making those little ashtrays with tiny colored tiles?  I could make a dozen of these tarts and not get tired of tinkering with the patterns. It’s a great way to use up extra fruit, or an excuse to buy those berries that have been tempting us for weeks now.

The concept is simple: the crust is actually granola that’s baked right in the pan.  The filling is healthy Greek yogurt, and the fruit topping makes it all look like dessert.  If you want you can substitute almond or coconut yogurt for the dairy yogurt.

Press the granola into a greased tart pan using the side of a cup measure to help spread the sticky mixture evenly.  Bake it until it’s golden and crunchy.

Fill the crust with the yogurt.  You can sweeten it with honey and vanilla or leave it tart.  I left mine plain.  Then, begin on the outside edge of your tart and layer your fruit in any pattern that appeals to you, working your way toward the center.  You can slice it, or leave it whole, the choice is yours.

There’s no right or wrong way, you can create a geometric masterpiece, or just arrange your fruit in pretty piles.  And you can always refer to photos of other tarts for inspiration.  I’ve set up a Pinterest board to give you some ideas here.

First and foremost, choose ripe seasonal fruit…that will insure that your tart will taste fantastic.  After that, decide whether you want a variety of color and shape like I’ve done, whether you want to go with a more monochromatic scheme, like all strawberries or all kiwi.  Or choose a simple two fruit arrangement with a high contrast like, say, mango and blackberry.  The fun part is, it all works.

You can see from the closeup that I start with sliced strawberries and place blackberries in between them to fill in the gaps.  Then a layer of overlapping half moons of kiwi fruit, followed by a ring of halved kumquats and blueberries  Then I thinly sliced a banana and fanned out the slices for the next ring.  In the center I just piled raspberries with a few blueberries for contrast.

I’m really excited about this fresh healthy take on the classic fruit tart.  Now you can enjoy one in all its glory, without having to wait for dessert.

For a non dairy version of this tart, made with coconut yogurt, see my VEGAN FRUIT AND YOGURT BREAKFAST TART.

Notes: 

• You can make the crust the day before, but once you put the yogurt on top, it’s best to eat it sooner rather than later.  The yogurt will eventually make the granola a little soggy if left to sit too long.
• Use sweetened or flavored yogurt if you don’t like it plain, but the thick Greek style works best if you intend to slice your tart.
• I used a 10″ tart pan, keep in mind that if you use something smaller in diameter you will have less space to create a pleasing arrangement of fruit.
• Here’s a secret—you can make this even easier…use ready-made granola and layer it at the bottom of a pie plate or casserole.  No need to bake it.  Spread out a thick layer of yogurt evenly over the top, and then arrange your fruit.  Just spoon it into bowls and drizzle with honey…

I hope you enjoy this, it’s such a fun way to do fruit and yogurt.  I can’t even imagine how luscious this will be once the ripe peaches and plums start arriving this summer.  But even in mid-winter you could arrange a gorgeous spiral of banana or citrus slices, dust it with nutty wheat germ and douse it with honey.

Don’t forget to pin it!