Heavenly French Strawberry Tart

This straw­ber­ry tart is SO deli­cious! It tastes just like what you would find in a patis­serie in France. It is heav­en­ly! So excit­ed to show you how to make it!

French Tarts typ­i­cal­ly use one of three types of pas­try: pâte feuil­letée (puff pas­try like in the Tarte Tatin), pâte brisée ( short­crust pas­try used for savory tarts like quich­es, as well as sweet yel­low fruit tarts), and pâte sablée (a sub­type of short­crust used for sweet tarts with berries).

Since we are mak­ing a straw­ber­ry tart, the pas­try of choice is the pâte sablée. This type of pas­try does not exist in the US so we have to make it our­selves. But don’t wor­ry, it is very easy to make, and so so worth it!

Making the Pâte Sablée (the Crust)

This is a recipe by Eric Kayser.

You will need: 10 oz.(280g.) of all pur­pose flour, 1 egg, 5.3 oz.(150g.) of unsalt­ed but­ter at room tem­per­a­ture, 1 oz.(30g.) of gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar, 0.1 oz.(2.5g.) of salt, and 2.2 oz. (62.5g.) of pow­dered sug­ar.

Step 1: In a food proces­sor, knead the but­ter so it becomes a lit­tle creamy. Add the gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar, the pow­dered sug­ar and the salt.

Step 2: Add the egg. Add the flour, and mix all ingre­di­ents.

Step 3: Make a ball, wrap it in plas­tic wrap, and put in the fridge a cou­ple of hours or overnight, if pos­si­ble.

‚Step 7: Take it out of the fridge. Using a rolling pin, make a flat cir­cle and put it in your tart pan (it is a good idea to put parch­ment paper on the pan):

 

If you don’t already have a tart pan, I high­ly rec­om­mend you get one that has a remov­able bot­tom. This will make it much eas­i­er to take the tart out of the pan. Some­thing like this:

Preparing the Tart Filling

This is what we call the “crème pâtis­sière”, which is the tra­di­tion­al cream fill­ing for tarts. You can find the recipe in French here.

You will need: 2.1 cups (1/2 liter) of milk, 4 egg yolks, 3.5 oz. (100g.) of gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar, 1 tea­spoon of pure vanil­la extract, 2 oz. (60g.) of all pur­pose flour, and a pinch of salt.

TIP: while you are prepar­ing the fill­ing, bake the pâte brisée in the oven for 20 min­utes at 350 degrees Fahren­heit (Note: you are bak­ing the crust alone, with noth­ing on it.) That way, the crust and the fill­ing will be ready at the same time.

Step 1: Heat up the milk, with the vanil­la extract and the salt, in a pot on the stove.

Step 2: While the milk is warm­ing up, mix the sug­ar and the yolks in a bowl using a wood­en spoon. The mix­ture should whiten.

 

Step 3: Add the flour:

 

Step 4: Add the boil­ing milk slow­ly and grad­u­al­ly.

Step 5: Pour the mix­ture back in the cleaned pot on the stove. Mix with a wood­en spoon on low heat, until the mix­ture thick­ens and becomes creamy:

 

Step 6: Take it off the stove and let it cool down.

Bringing it all together

You should now have a baked crust (if you have not yet baked the crust, bake it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahren­heit for 20 min­utes), and a cream fill­ing.

All you need to do is pour the fill­ing inside the crust, and add the straw­ber­ries, cut in halves, on top of the fill­ing:

 

 

You did it! You just made a deli­cious French Straw­ber­ry Tart! 

Take the straw­ber­ry tart out of the pan, and put it on a serv­ing dish. 
OPTIONAL: You can add pow­dered sug­ar on top of the straw­ber­ries:

 

Bon Appétit!

French Mom

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