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. all purpose flour, 1 egg, 10 tbsp of unsalted butter at room temperature, 1 oz. granulated sugar, a pinch of salt, and 2 oz. 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:

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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.

mixing sugar and egg yolks — MIxing sugar and egg yolks

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:

mixture turning into cream — MIxture is turning into cream

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: