I had a bit of a tart craze this weekend.
Here is the first one: Strawberry Tart with vanilla pastry cream and chocolate curls.
STRAWBERRY TART RECIPE
Recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book “Baking: From My Home to Yours”
Ingredients
For Sweet Tart Dough
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 stick plus 1 tbsp (9 tbsp) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 1 large egg yolk
For Vanilla Pastry Cream
- 2 cups whole milk
- 6 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into bits at room temperature
Method
- To prepare the sweet tart dough, pulse flour, sugar and salt in a food processor.
- Add butter and pulse until it resembles a coarse meal.
- Stir in the yolk and pulse again until the dough forms clumps and curds.
- Turn the dough out onto a work surface and very lightly and sparingly, knead just to incorporate dry ingredients. Place in the refrigerator and let the dough relax for half an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F (190C) degrees. Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Freeze crust at least 30 minutes before baking.
- Bake blind for 25 minutes, remove the weight and bake for another 10 minutes. Let cool.
- To prepare the vanilla pastry cream, bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk.
- Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, contstantly and thoroughly bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.
- Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the bits of butter, stirring until they are fully incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky.
- Scrape the cream into a bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate until cold or, if you want to cool it quickly put the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water and stir the pastry cream occasionally until it is thoroughly chilled, about 20 minutes.
- The pastry cream can be kept, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Pour the cooled pastry cream into the tart shell, flatten the top with a spatula and place strawberries, followed by chocolate curls.