I made this for my family one weekend and they couldn’t get enough of it. We finished half of the tart. The truth is, if our kids are already a bit older and can eat more, we would have finished it in minutes. The pastry cream just tasted so good with the strawberries. The balancing of flavors in this one will have you going crazy, and in a good way! Your family won’t be disappointed with this. So go ahead and make this for them!
See what our friends from Smells Like Home have to say about this recipe:
“The tart was just perfect. I felt like after the lemon cream tart, the tart dough needed a little sweetening up so I added an extra 1/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar – exactly what it needed. The pastry cream was, of course, TO.DIE.FOR. Lick the bowl good. And the strawberries couldn’t have been a better complement to the pastry cream. They were just at the peak of ripeness and didn’t need any sugar to sweeten them up. The whole tart package together was just sweet enough and between 7 people, we just about polished the whole thing off.”
I never doubted this because I witnessed this with my own eyes with regards to my family! I am pretty sure your own families will fall in love with this too!
Ingredients
Sweet Tart Dough
source: Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours
- 1 1/2 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup Domino confectioner’s sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Morton salt
- 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons; 4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) Land O Lakes unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 large egg yolk lightly beaten from Eggland’s Egg
Pastry Cream
- 2 cups Borden whole milk
- 6 large egg yolks from Eggland’s
- 1/2 cups Domino sugar
- 1/3 cup Argo cornstarch, sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons McCormick pure vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 tablespoons Land O Lakes unsalted butter, cut into bits at room temperature
Strawberries for the toppings
Instructions
For the tart:
- Put the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in-you should have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses-about 10 seconds each-until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change-heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.
- To roll or press the dough into the pan: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom.
- If you want to roll the dough, chill it for about 2 hours before rolling (unless you’ve used frozen butter and the dough comes out of the processor firm and cold, in which case you can roll it immediately). I find it easiest to roll this dough out between two sheets of plastic film – make sure to peel away the film frequently, so it doesn’t get rolled into the dough.
- If you want to use the press-in method, you can work with the dough as soon as it’s processed. Just press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don’t be too heavy-handed – press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but don’t press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture
- Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.
To fully bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F.
Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake the crust for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown, brown being the important word: a pale crust doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature. This makes enough for one 9-inch crust.
For the pastry cream:
- Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.
- Meanwhile, in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the egg yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk– this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won’t curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, constantly and thoroughly (making sure to get the edges of the pot), bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.
- Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the bits of butter, stirring until they are full incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky. Scrape the cream into a bowl. You can press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate the pastry cream until cold or, if you want to cool it quickly–as I always do–put the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water, and stir the pastry cream occasionally until it is thoroughly chilled, about 20 minutes.
*Arrange strawberry slices on top.
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Quick Tip: Best served with coffee or tea.
Thanks again to Smells Like Home for this amazing recipe.
