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 Colonna's book, Teatime in Paris.
24cm (9 inch) non-stick tart tin/ring or 8 individual tartlet tins/rings
Ingredients
Classic Sweet Pastry
125g (4½oz)butter, unsaltedsoftened
75g (3oz)icing/powdered sugar
¼teaspoonsalt (fleur de sel)
1eggorganic
½teaspoonvanilla powder (or extract)
240g (8½oz)plain (all-purpose) flourType 45
Pistachio Pastry Cream
400ml (14fl oz)whole milk
1vanilla pod/bean
5egg yolksorganic
60g (2.5oz)sugar
2tablespooncornflour/cornstarch
1-2tablespoonpistachio pasteSee recipe link in NOTES
15g (1 tbsp)butter (unsalted)
Garnish
1punnetfresh strawberrieshulled and halved
Instructions
Sweet Pastry Base (see recipe card below)
Prepare the pastry bases using the recipe below and leave to cool.
Pistachio Pastry Cream 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
If you like more pistachio in the filling, add more pistachio paste.If using bought pistachio paste, you may need to use just a little. Ensure it is natural made with pistachios with no additives, colourings, aromas or oils, otherwise make your own pistachio paste. I highly recommend using the measures in grams & ml (instead of cups) for more accuracy and better, consistent results
Keyword French strawberry tart, pistachio pastry cream, strawberry tart