This tart is the perfect addition for any warm day, its sweet and perfectly balanced for the warmer weather. Get your strawberries and we can get started.
To start on the tart you’ll want to start on the crème pâtissière, this will need time to cool before you use it but feel free to make either the crème pâtissière or pastry first, they both need time before you use them. Like with all my recipes, I recommend you do some prep work first by winging up your ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚/350˚f and getting any equipment you need ready before you start.
For the crème pâtissière, get your medium saucepan and place your milk and vanilla extract into it and place on the hob over a medium-high heat. Bring the milk to a boil. While you wait for your milk to come to a boil, you can make the other part of the crème pâtissière.
Into a separate bowl add the egg yolks and sugar and whisk them together until well combined, then you can add in your plain flour and whisk that in until fully combined. You will notice that the mixture thickens, don’t worry this is normal. You want this to happen, the flour is the thickening agent in the custard.
So, once your milk has reached a boil, you can then add around 1/4 of the milk mix into your egg mixture and whisk that through, then continue pouring the boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking continuously until they are well combined. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and place back on the hob over a medium-high heat, whisking continuously until the mixture has become thicker – make sure you don’t burn the mixture, keep whisking the custard.
Get yourself a shallow sided cake tin and pour the hot custard onto it, spreading it out as thin as possible. This is just to help with the cooling process, cover the mixture with clingfilm/plastic wrap, making sure its touching the top of the custard (this stops a skin from forming on top, which nobody likes). Allow it too cool fully before you intend on using.
The pastry isn’t exactly hard to make, all you need to do is beat the sugar and egg together, then set it aside until later on. Into a bowl or food processor place the flour, salt and butter then combine them together by either rubbing the butter into the flour or pulsing them together in a food processor (I went with the food processor method on this occasion).
Once they are combined, add in the egg/sugar mix and work it into the flour/butter mixture. This will bind the dough together, work them together until almost fully combined then tip out onto a floured surface to knead the pastry together. You’re looking for a clear dough, with no traces of a single ingredient. Wrap in clingfilm/plastic wrap then chill in the fridge for around an hour, this is to allow the butter to firm up and the gluten to relax.
After about an hour in the fridge, the dough should be firm. Take it from the fridge and cut it in half (keep the other half chilled in the fridge), flour your surface well with some plain flour. Place the dough onto the floured surface and roll it out until its slightly bigger than your 8 inch pie dish. Place the pastry over the tart tine and work it into the tin, fix any cracks with the remaining pastry and trim the excess from the edges. You can then dock the pastry with a fork, this is just to stop it from rising while it’s baking, place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes, then give it a good coat with some egg wash then place in the preheated oven and bake for 23-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Once your pastry case and crème pâtissière are fully cooled down, you can start to assemble your tart. Place the custard into a bowl and whisk it until its smooth and more pliable, once you’ve got it spreadable, add it into the pastry case and level it off as best you can using an offset palette knife or the back of a spoon. Set aside (or in the fridge) while you slice your strawberries.
Next, you’ll want to slice your strawberries, I slice most of mine into 3 or 4’s so there is the right thickness but you do it however you like, you could even place the strawberries on whole, just slice the green bit off the top.
Now you can place the strawberry slices on top of the tart, starting on the outside working your way into the middle of the tart, this is the way that works best for me personally but feel free to change it, I’m just providing the basic information. Once all your strawberries are on, you can then warm up the apricot jam and then brush it over the fruit. This acts as a preservative and adds flavour.
Ingredients:
Crème pâtissière:
500ml Milk.
1-2 tsp Vanilla extract.
120g Egg yolks.
100g Granulated white sugar.
60g Plain flour.
Pastry:
1 Egg.
90g Granulated white sugar.
225g Butter.
375g Plain flour.
Pinch of salt
Finish:
Strawberries, sliced.
Apricot jam, for the glaze.
So that’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed this recipe. It’s a pretty quick and easy recipe and perfect for this time of year (especially if the weather is decent), so make this and enjoy the weather with your friends and family. I’ll see you again next week guys!
As always, I’ll leave the YouTube video down below if you’re interested in watching it!
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