Baked Fillings for Tarts

[miladyinsanity]

I'm thinking of making a chocolate tart which is, from bottom:

1. Tart dough

2. Some sort of custard-type filling...maybe pastry cream?

3. Chocolate meringue crust

The thing is, I have no idea what kind of custard-type filling will last inside. The only one I know of that will be fine is pastry cream, and as much as I love the stuff, it's not quite what I want.

Most of the other chocolate custard tart rcipes I've seen, like Alice Medrich's Warm Mocha Tart, instruct you to bake the tart shell, fill it and stick it back into the still-warm oven after turning it off.

The meringue will be baked for about 8-10 minutes at 176C/350F.

Any ideas?

[JeanneCake]

Do you like fruit with chocolate? What about an orange curd filling? If your tart crust is chocolate, it would be a nice surpize beneath the meringue. Or a flavored ganache with some yolks like a chocolate marquise.

[miladyinsanity]

Ooh. I didn't think about orange curd, even though it's going to be one of my upcoming projects.

Thanks, JeanneCake!

But is a marquise heat-stable? That's actually what I'm worried about. I need a filling that won't break or something in the oven.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Peach and rosemary-frangipane tarts.

With candied marcona almonds.

(would have benefited from a peach glaze on the fruit)

[LindaK]

Rosemary, what an interesting addition to a fruit tart. Sounds lovely. I love frangipane with fruit.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

What about an unbaked meringue? If you have a blowtorch, you can torch the meringue to get the lovely outside without baking. A thin layer of meringue means the inside will "cook" a bit as well, or if you do a lot of meringue, it will stay soft, but Italian Meringue is a beautiful soft, gooey meringue which I love uncooked, just torched.

Then you can do whatever you like inside.