Strawberry Tart
For me, Springtime is strawberry time! Strawberries are one of my all-time favorite fruits, there’s just something about those sweet, red cones of love that puts a smile on my face with every bite.
Today, I’m going to take some beautiful strawberries and turn them into a delicious tart!
Now, I know what you might be thinking, a French strawberry tart on a blog all about Italian food? Has this guy lost his mind? Well, have no fear, because I will be putting an Italian twist on this tart.
For starters, the base for the tart will be a classic Italian pastry dough called pasta frolla, which is similar to a classic pie/tart dough but has eggs and egg yolks added for a richer pasta-like flavor.
It will also be filled with an orange-scented pastry cream thickened with semolina flour, a Durum wheat flour often used for making pasta, but will instead give the custard a unique texture.
For a punch of orange flavor, I will be utilizing orange zest and orange liquor, both of which bring a different flavor of orange to the party. Some recipes might call for orange blossom water, but it’s not that easy to find, so orange liquor, or orange extract (if you’re serving kids) will be great.
As for the strawberries themselves, they will simply be macerated with some sugar to bring out their sweetness and make them very soft as there’s not much that needs to be done to get strawberries to taste good.
With all of that said, let’s get baking!
Strawberry Tart
Servings: 7
For the Pasta Frolla Pastry Dough:
1 cup of flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 cup of sugar
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
1 whole egg plus one egg yolk, beaten
For the Semolina Pastry Cream:
1 1/2 cups of whole milk
5 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon of semolina flour
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of orange liquor (or orange blossom water/orange extract)
Grated zest of 1 orange
For the Strawberries:
4 cups of vertically sliced strawberries
1/2 cup of sugar
Start by making the dough. In the bowl of a food processor, dump in the flour, sugar, salt, and butter, and pulse 5-7 times, or until the butter is the size of large peas. Alternatively, you could do this in a bowl and use a fork or pastry cutter to break the butter down into small chunks.
Add the egg and egg yolk, then mix until a crumbly dough forms and no dry flour remains. (Based on the color alone, you can see the difference between this dough and classic pie dough. It almost looks like a cross between pasta dough and pie dough.)
Dump the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and use the wrap to bring the crumbles together and shape the dough into a disc.
Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour, or up to overnight, but remove the dough from the fridge about 10 minutes before you roll it out.
While the crust chills, make the custard so it’ll be chilled and set by the time the dough is baked.
Heat the milk in a medium saucepan until simmering.
Meanwhile, in a heat-proof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and semolina for about a minute, or until the yolks start to turn pale.
Temper the yolks by pouring half of the hot milk into the yolks, whisking, then pour the egg mixture into the pot and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the custard becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
(If you want to use a thermometer, that’s fine, the custard will be done when it hits 180 degrees, but I just go by the thickness.)
Remove the pot from the heat, then whisk in the butter and orange liquor. Strain the custard through a fine-mesh strainer, stir in the orange zest, then cover directly with plastic wrap and chill until cold.
(I know this might look like it’s curdled and ruined, but in fact, this is the texture you want.
As the semolina flour cooks with the eggs and milk, the starch expands and it gives the custard a polenta-like texture that is quite pleasant in the final dessert.)
On a floured surface, roll the dough to a 12-inch diameter, then transfer it to an ungreased 9-inch tart shell or pie pan.
Lift the edges of the dough and ensure that covers the bottom and sides of the pan in an even layer, tearing off bits of dough to patch any holes if necessary. Use scissors or a paring knife to trim the dough around the edges of the pan.
Also please make sure you use your fingers to press the dough against the edges of the pan, otherwise the dough will slide down the sides of the shell as it bakes and you’ll end up with a flat crust.
(You may notice lots of bits of butter scattered throughout the dough, that’s going to lead to a wonderfully flaky crust.)
Once in the pan, chill for an additional 10 minutes to allow the butter to firm up.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Use a fork to poke the dough on the bottom several times, then lay a sheet of parchment paper onto the dough, then dump in a bunch of dried beans or ceramic pie weights, enough to almost completely fill the dough.
Place the shell onto a sheet pan, then bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges of the dough begin to brown, then carefully remove the parchment and weight and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until the crust is dry at the bottom.
This process is called blind baking and it will ensure that the finished crust becomes nice and crisp.
Let the crust cool completely.
(Ok, I know this crust doesn’t look perfect, some of it did slide down the sides of the pan, but that’s fine! The beauty of home baking is that your desserts don’t have to look like they came from a professional bake shop, they just have to taste really good!)
While the crust bakes, macerate the sliced strawberries by tossing them with the sugar in a large bowl and setting them aside until you can see some of the liquid coming out.
Macerating is a very simple process, it just means that the sugar will enhance the sweetness of the strawberries, pull out some of the juice, and make them very soft.
To assemble, spread the chilled custard onto the cooled crust in an even layer. Drain the strawberries from their liquid, making sure to remove as much excess liquid as possible, and scatter on top of the custard!
Slice it up and enjoy!
There is nothing to not love about this amazing strawberry tart!
Crisp, flaky pastry, floral custard with a polenta-like consistency from the semolina, but the real hero is the sweet, juicy strawberries that make this a tart that is well-worth setting aside a few hours in the day to bake.
