A French style tart is a great way to showcase beautiful fruit. The recipe mostly revolves around the filling and crust since the topping/decoration is the fruit itself in its simple, beautifully natural state. When I see the topping on a fruit tart, like the strawberries on top of this one, it makes me crave that intense strawberry flavor all the way through the tart. I flavored some rich pastry cream with strawberry powder, which is simple freeze-dried strawberries that I ground up into powder, which not only turned the pastry cream a beautiful strawberry pink but took its flavor to a whole new level to really showcase strawberries.

Prep Time: 30 Minutes

Bake Time: 25 Minutes

Chilling Time: 4 Hours

Total Time: 5 Hours

Serves 8-10 people (one 9-12 inch tart)

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

1 ½ Cups (180g) All Purpose Flour

6 ½ Tbs (53g) Confectioner’s Sugar

2 ½ Tbs (18g) Almond Flour

¼ Tsp (1g) Salt

7 Tbs (99g) Softened Unsalted Butter

1 Large Egg, Room Temp

For the Pastry Cream

2 Cups (480mL) Whole Milk

½ Cup (100g) Granulated Sugar

3 ½ Tbs (1/2g) Freeze Dried Strawberries, Ground into Powder

Seeds from One Vanilla Bean Pod (use 2 tsp extract instead if you don’t have beans)

¼ Tsp (1g) Salt

4 Large Egg Yolks

3 Tbs (30g) Cornstarch

1 Tbs (15g) Softened Unsalted Butter

For the Topping:

Fresh Strawberries, hulled and halved lengthwise

1/4 Cup Strawberry Preserves

Directions:

1.     Start by making the crust. In a large bowl, mix the flour, confectioner’s sugar, almond flour and salt together, then add the butter and pinch it into the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.

2.     Add in the egg and mix with a spatula until the dough starts to come together, then finish mixing with your hands and collect the dough into a disk. Wrap the dough with plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

3.     Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll the dough out to 1/8” thickness, ensuring to re flour the dough and surface as needed since the dough is slightly sticky. Gently transfer the dough to a tart pan, and gently press it into all the grooves and corners, cutting the excess off the edges.

4.     Prick the dough all over with a fork, then chill for another 20 minutes. Preheat your oven to 375 F (200C).

5.     Put a sheet of parchment inside the dough and fill to the top with dry beans or pie weights, ensuring they are pressed up all the way around the edges to prevent the dough from rising in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes.

6.     Remove the beans and parchment from the dough and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the dough is light golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

7.     Now, make the pastry cream. In a medium saucepan, add the milk, sugar, strawberry powder, and vanilla bean pod. If you are using extract instead, do not add it in yet. Heat the mixture while whisking occasionally over medium heat until it comes to a gentle simmer.

8.     Right before the milk mixture comes to a simmer, in a separate large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and cornstarch together. Don’t do this too early because the cornstarch will dehydrate the yolks too much.

9.     Slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the yolk and cornstarch mixture while constantly whisking. Once 2/3 of the milk has been added to the yolks, slowly pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan while constantly whisking.

10.  Whisk and cook over a medium heat until nicely thickened, almost pudding consistency. Once it reaches that point, turn off the heat and add the butter and vanilla extract (if using) and whisk until smooth.

11.  Pass the cream through a fine mesh sieve and pour into the cooled tart crust, then gently jiggle it to smooth out the surface. Place a layer of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the cream and chill for 30 minutes.

12.  Arrange the strawberries in whatever pattern you like around the top of the pastry cream. Microwave the strawberry preserves to melt them, then brush on top of the strawberries to make them shine. Chill for a minimum of 3 hours before serving.

-Store covered with plastic wrap in the fridge for up to 3 days.