Summer Strawberry Tart
A classic fruit tart is food to celebrate with and has three steps (1) Shortcrust Pastry Tart Case (2) Crème pâtissière (3) assemble the Strawberry Tart with fresh fruit. Helpfully the component parts of pastry case and crème pâtissière can both be prepared in advance. I would suggest assembling the tart just before you want to eat as it is best with crisp pastry and perfect fruit; both spoil quickly when made too far ahead.
Homemade pastry and crème pâtissière are technical and you need a medium level of cooking ability to make them but they are very useful recipes to master should you wish to make something truly special and impressive such as a homemade fruit tart. I am using strawberries but you can obviously assemble a whole variety of tarts using any fruit you love.
Equipment List: blender, tart tin, baking beans, greaseproof paper, balloon whisk, sieve
Summer Strawberry Tart
shortcrust pasty
200g plain flour
100g unsalted butter, cold and diced into cubed
1 organic egg
pinch of fine salt
splash of water, if necessary
To make the shortcrust pastry case: preheat the oven to 180C fan oven. To a blender and add the flour and diced butter. Blitz until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add a pinch of salt and 1 egg and pulse until the pastry dough comes together. Tip onto a flat surface and form a round of pastry dough, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Remove from the fridge and roll out the pastry to 1/2 cm thickness, also to a size larger than your tart tin. Using a rolling pin pull fold the pastry in two and lay over the rolling pin, use this to transfer it to your tart tin. Push the pastry into the tin on all sides, trim the edges and patch any thinner parts.
Once the pastry lining is complete very gently prick with a fork (without pushing all the way through, as you don’t want the filling to run out of the pastry case. Add greaseproof paper and baking beans and blind bake for 15 minutes or until golden and cooked. Remove the pastry case from the oven and cool, then remove carefully from the tin and set aside.
crème pâtissière
500ml whole milk
1 whole vanilla pod, split
5 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
50g cornflour
To make the crème pâtissière filling: to a bowl add the egg yolks (you can store the egg whites in an airtight container in the fridge for another recipe). To the egg yolks add sugar and corn flour, then set aside.
To a pan add the whole milk and split vanilla pod warm until steaming hot but not boiling. Remove the vanilla pod, which has now infused into the milk.
Pour 1/4 of the hot vanilla milk into the egg/ sugar/ cornflour mix and whisk. Then return everything to the pan (with the remainder of the milk) and return to the heat.
Over a gentle heat continuously stir and whisk the custard whilst it slowly comes up to the boil. Once thickened remove from the heat. If it is thickening too quickly pull off the heat and keep stirring.
Pour into a china bowl to cool and cover the surface with clingfilm to stop a film forming. Refrigerate.
assemble the strawberry tart
400g strawberries (or other Summer berries), washed and dried
3 tablespoons smooth apricot jam, warmed over a heat until a glaze
To assemble the tart: prep the strawberries by removing the green tops and cutting in half.
Take a flat serving plate/ cake stand and place the pastry case on it. Brush the inside of the pastry with the apricot glaze. Then add a layer of the crème pâtissière filling, until 1/2 way up the side of the pastry case. Layer the fruit in a pattern of your choice and brush with melted apricot glaze. Serve on a platter or cake stand and enjoy.