Strawberry Tart

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add to shopping list Ingredients

For Tart you will need:
1¼ cups AP flour
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
2 tablespoons cold shortening
¼ cup ice water
For Pastry Cream:
5 extra-large egg yolks
¾ cups sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1½ cups scalded milk
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light cream
2 pints of fresh strawberries
Confectioner’s sugar (for decoration)
Heart shaped cookies (as recipe follows)

Preparation

In a small bowl combine flour, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes. After that, pour the flour mixture in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the butter and shortening and pulse until the butter is in the size of peas. Add the ice water and process until the dough comes together.
The dough may be on the sticky side, so make sure to place on a well-floured board and form into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least another 30 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out the dough and line to fit an 8 inch buttered pie plate. If you like, roll out the rest of the dough and cut out heat shapes for decoration. Place a few sprinkles of sugar on top of the heart cookies before baking. Bake crust (and cookies) for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

On the stovetop, heat milk.

Meanwhile, using a mix master, beat egg yolks and sugar on medium-high speed until very thick. Then reduce to low speed and add the cornstarch.

With the mixer still on low, SLOWLY pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. Transfer the mixture into a saucepan and cook over low speed. Stir constantly with a spoon, until mixture becomes slightly thicker. Don’t be alarmed if the custard comes to boil and appears to curdle. Switch to a whisk and beat vigorously. Foam will form on the top and as you are whisking, you will see a liquid like substance at the bottom of the saucepan. Beat until foam and liquid are blended and thicken to a pudding-like substance.

Lastly, stir in vanilla, butter and light cream. Pour the custard into a glass bowl and place plastic wrap DIRECTLY ON the custard otherwise it will become very watery as it sits in the refrigerator. Refrigerate until cold.

Once custard is cool enough, fill the pie crust. Decorate with fresh strawberries and heart shaped cookies and dust with confectioner’s sugar.

I found this wonderful recipe by Ina Garten, whom I absolutely adore. My recipe is ever so slightly different from hers.

Instead of making four individual tart shells, I just made one. Furthermore, the recipe calls for heavy cream and Cognac. I switched the heavy cream to light cream only because we didn’t have heavy cream. As for the brandy, we didn’t have any and I don’t really think it needs it. There are two other optional ingredients- apricot jelly and pistachios. Since both were optional, I decided to the leave the tart simple and fresh.

I was surprised how simple it actually was to make this recipe. In fact, making this tart required half my attention since during most of the prep work I was busy talking on the phone.

The tart came out fantastic. The pastry cream wasn’t thick at all. In fact, it was more like pudding. The pastry crust came out splendid- perfect texture and lightly sweetened which balanced out the custard filling. The addition of the fresh strawberries made the tart overall refreshing and light!

With the left over pastry dough, I cut out some heart shapes to make it a little more festive.

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Reviews

2/08/11

Theresa111 says:

Ina is also one of my favorite cooks. You did a splendid job and I am certain it melted in your mouth. Strawberries and tarts are one of life's fines luxuries.

2/09/11

TammyGirl says:

Thank you so much for your kind words!
xx,

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