Strawberry Tart with Pistachio Pastry Cream

How to make a French strawberry tart from scratch with lush pistachio pastry cream. It’s also a useful recipe for using up 5 egg yolks.

This recipe was one of my sources of inspiration for my 2nd book, Teatime in Paris, where you’ll find the original recipe for tartlets with step-by-step instructions in more detail.

Popular Parisian Patisserie Inspiration with Strawberries

French summer strawberries (Mara des Bois, Plougastel, Gariguettes, etc.) have cheered us up no end with their sweet, candy-like flavours. We’ve simply been eating strawberries with our morning maple granola and with homemade ice cream, such as wasabi, pistachio and vanilla ice cream.

However, recently I can’t stop making berry tarts. It gives me a great excuse to use up egg yolks by making crème pâtissière or pastry cream. What’s best about pastry cream is that you can alter the flavours to adapt to many classic French desserts.

After visiting the Eugène Boudin exhibition at the Jacquemart André Museum, we couldn’t resist a teatime goûter – or afternoon treat around 4 o’clock. So, heading to their beautiful museum café, it was divine to choose from the trolley of patisseries, all made by the popular Parisian bakery and oldest patisserie in Paris, Stohrer.
What did I pick?  A Fraisier à la pistache.

Not only was it divine but it was blissful inspiration to recreate a homemade version of this as a reminder of an afternoon in Paris. So here’s my Strawberry Tart with a lush pistachio pastry cream. It’s berry good indeed.

Strawberry & Pistachio Tart

Strawberry & Pistachio Tart

Author: Jill Colonna

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Chilling/Resting time1 hr 30 mins

Total Time2 hrs 30 mins

Course : Dessert, teatime

Cuisine : French

Keyword : strawberry tart, pistachio pastry cream

Servings : 8 people

Print Recipe

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Description

How to make a French strawberry tart from scratch with lush pistachio pastry cream. A useful dessert recipe for using up 5 egg yolks. Recipe adapted from Jill's book, Teatime in Paris.

Ingredients

Classic Sweet Pastry

• 125 g butter, unsalted softened

Pistachio Cream

• 400 ml (14fl oz) whole milk
• 1 vanilla pod/bean
• 5 egg yolks organic
• 60 g (2.5oz) sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch
• 1-2 tbsp pistachio paste (see NOTES)
• 15 g (1 tbsp) butter (unsalted)

Garnish

• 1 punnet fresh strawberries hulled and halved

Instructions

Sweet Pastry Base

• Using a stand mixer, mix the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Gradually add the other ingredients until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

  Knead into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
• Remove from the fridge and leave at room temperature for 30 minutes for ease of use. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/360°F/Gas 4.
• Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to a 28cm/11 inch circle with 5mm thickness and transfer to a 24cm (9 inch) non-stick tart tin.

  Press into the tart tin. Prick the pastry with a fork and top with baking paper (cut to size – I use the same one several baking sessions for convenience) and fill with washed coins, rice or dried beans to blind bake the pastry.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown then remove the baking beans. Leave to cool, remove from the tin and set aside.

Pistachio Filling

• Boil the milk with the vanilla pod in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse covered for about 10 minutes. Remove the pod, scrape out the seeds and add to the milk.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk the yolks with the sugar and gradually add the cornflour. Whisk until light and creamy. Pour on the hot milk and transfer back to the saucepan, whisking continuously over a medium heat until thickened then whisk in the butter.
• Take off the heat, whisk in the pistachio paste and leave to cool. Place some cling film directly on to the pastry cream, to avoid a film forming on top (you don't want to whisk this in later, otherwise you'll end up with a lumpy bumpy cream!) Cover with the film again and chill in the fridge.

Assembly

• Cut the strawberries in half. Fill the pastry base with the pastry cream then place the strawberries on top.

Notes

Pistachio Paste: to make your own pistachio paste, whizz 50g unsalted pistachios in a grinder or grind in a mortar and pestle. Mix together with 1 tbsp ground almonds (almond flour), 25g/1 tbsp sugar, 2 drops of almond extract and a tbsp water