summer strawberry tart
fruit tarts are something that i'm very familiar with, but i only recently tried making them.
i was talking to my mom about what she wanted for mother's day, and she said that she wanted a banana cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting (sound familiar...?), but i suggested a fruit tart to change things up a bit.
i ended up using melissa clark's dough recipe and martha stewart's pastry cream recipe (i made a few variations). the finished product was absolutely delicious! the buttery, flaky dough paired perfectly with the creamy vanilla bean filling and the sweet strawberries. i ended up making one big tart and four smaller tarts.
this recipe does take some time, as the dough needs to sit in the fridge for a bit, but the actual process is really quick! try it out and let me know how it goes. if i can do it, you can do it (you really can).
ingredients
½ cup almond flour
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
pinch kosher salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
directions
for the crust, pulse the almond flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, lemon zest and salt together.
add the butter and pulse until a coarse meal forms. add the egg and pulse until the dough comes together. press dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for 4 hours or up to a week.
when ready to bake the tart, roll the dough out on a floured surface to a 3/8-inch thickness. line a 9-inch tart pan with the dough; chill for 30 minutes.
heat the oven to 325 degrees. line the tart shell with foil and fill with baking weights. bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and weights. continue baking, uncovered, for 5 to 10 more minutes, until pale golden. allow tart shell to cool completely before filling.
*see my notes at bottom
ingredients
1 cup whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean , split
5 tbsp sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp flour (perferably rice flour for lightness)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
directions
place milk, vanilla bean, and 1/4 cup sugar in a medium saucepan over high heat; cook until almost boiling.
in a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar until thickened. sprinkle in cornstarch and flour and continue beating until well combined.
remove vanilla bean from milk. while whisking constantly, slowly pour heated-milk mixture into egg-yolk mixture. pour mixture through a fine sieve back into saucepan, and cook, whisking constantly, over medium-high heat, until it thickens and registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 2 minutes.
transfer to a large bowl and whisk in butter until melted. cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly on the surface of the pastry cream; refrigerate until completely cooled.
*see my notes at bottom
my notes
for the tart shell
i used almond flour instead of blanched almonds. i rolled the dough out on a floured silpat, which was much easier than rolling it out in plastic wrap (because it kept sticking to the wrap).
for the weight, i used rice, but you can use whatever you have. make sure to use weights even if you are making mini tartlets.
for the pastry cream
i used white rice flour
to assemble
after letting the tart shell and pastry cream cool, evenly spread the pastry cream into the tart shell. then top with any fruit of your choosing. if you want to make a design similar to the one that i did, make sure to line the fruit starting from the outside and going in. serve within 2 hours for the best texture.
