Follow along on this culinary journey as I take you step by step on how to make Strawberry Tartlets. With this easy to follow pictorial recipe anyone can be a pastry chef.
Strawberry tartlets are so easy to make and look beautiful on the 4th of July or as an appetizer. There’s a few things you should consider when making this recipe because it helps you make the perfect tartlet.
Strawberry tart
Preparation and cooking time
Prep:35 mins
Cook:45 mins
+ chilling
Easy
Serves 12
Wow family and friends with a stunning strawberry tart. A lovely centrepiece dessert for summer dining, it’s made with homemade pastry and crème pâtissière
- Vegetarian
| Nutrient | Unit |
|---|---|
| kcal | 377 |
| fat | 22g |
| saturates | 13g |
| carbs | 39g |
| sugars | 23g |
| fibre | 2g |
| protein | 4g |
| salt | 0.2g |
Ingredients
- 125g unsalted butter , softened slightly
- 85g icing sugar
- 1 egg
- 200g plain flour , plus extra for dusting
- 100g strawberry jam
- 500g strawberries , (small hulled, large sliced)
- 2 tbsp apricot jam
For the crème pâtissière
- 300ml milk
- 150ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 egg yolks
- 60g caster sugar
- 3½ tbsp cornflour
- 50g butter , cubed and softened
Method
- STEP 1Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth, but not fluffy. Mix in the egg until combined, then add the flour. Bring together with your hands to form a dough. Wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
- STEP 2Dust a surface with flour and roll out the pastry to a 26cm circle (or 3cm bigger than your tin). Line a 23cm fluted tart tin with the pastry, leaving an overhang. Prick the base with a fork to stop any air bubbles forming. Chill for 30 mins.
- STEP 3Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line the pastry case with a scrunched up sheet of baking parchment and baking beans, then bake for 15 mins. Remove the parchment and beans and bake for 15-20 mins more until crisp and golden. Leave in the tin to cool.
- STEP 4To make the crème pâtissière, heat the milk, cream and vanilla in a pan over a medium heat, stirring occasionally. Bring up to a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and sugar in a bowl for 3 mins until pale, then stir in the cornflour until combined. Pour a quarter of the hot cream over the egg mix, whisking continuously, then pour the warm egg mix into the pan with the rest of the cream. Stir over a low-medium heat for 5-8 mins until the crème pâtissière thickens. Transfer to a large bowl and cool for 15 mins, whisking occasionally. Gradually whisk in the butter until smooth, cover and put in the fridge until needed.
- STEP 5Beat the strawberry jam to loosen it, then spread over the bottom of the pastry case. Put the crème pâtissière into a piping bag and pipe in a spiral on top of the jam. Arrange the strawberries on top in a pattern. Heat the apricot jam in a small pan with 1 tbsp water until warm. Whisk to loosen the jam, then leave to cool slightly. Brush over the top of the strawberries.
Fresh Strawberry Tartlets
Makes 8 Tartlets
Introduction
Think of those gorgeous little pastries in a French bakery – so tempting. Filled with crème patissière, they are rather more long-winded to put together, whereas the filling I’ve used here is just as tasty and much quicker. Strawberries are a classic topping, but raspberries or blueberries would be lovely too.
Ingredients
| For the pastry: | |
| 175g | plain flour, plus extra for dusting |
| 2 tbsp | icing sugar |
| 100g | cold butter, cubed |
| 1 | egg, beaten |
| For the filling: | |
| 250g | full-fat mascarpone cheese |
| 150ml | pouring double cream |
| 2 tbsp | icing sugar |
| 2 tsp | vanilla extract |
| 400g | strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced |
| 2 heaped tbsp | redcurrant jelly, for brushing |
Essential kit
You will need eight 8cm round, loose-bottomed fluted tartlet tins.
Method
You will need eight 8cm (3in) round, loose-bottomed fluted tartlet tins. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6.
To make the pastry, measure the flour, icing sugar and butter into a food processor and whizz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Alternatively, place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips. Add the egg and whizz again until you have a smooth ball of dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle a work surface with flour and roll out the dough until fairly thin – about the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut out eight discs slightly bigger than the tartlet tins. Line each tin with the pastry, on the base and up the sides (see tip), trim across the top and prick the base with a fork.
Line each pastry case with baking paper, fill with a few baking beans and bake blind for about 10 minutes until pale golden and starting to cook . Remove the beans and paper and return to the oven for about 5 minutes to dry out the base and to finish cooking the pastry. Set aside to cool down completely in the tartlet tins.
For the filling, measure the mascarpone and cream into a bowl with the icing sugar and vanilla extract and whisk by hand (see tip) until slightly thickened. Spoon some of the filling into each of the cold tartlet cases and level the top. Arrange slices of strawberry on top of each filled tartlet in a pretty spiral. Heat the redcurrant jelly in a small pan and brush over the strawberry slices to glaze.
Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes, then remove from the tins to serve.
Cook time: 15 minutes, plus chilling and cooling.
Prepare Ahead: Can be made completely up to 4 hours ahead. The tartlet cases can be baked up to a day ahead.
Freeze: The tartlet cases freeze well.
Mary’s Everyday Tips: When lining the tartlet tins with the pastry, be sure not to stretch the pastry, or it will shrink back on cooking. Handle gently and ease the excess pastry from around the edges into the sides and lip of the tin.
Strawberry Tartlets with Vanilla Pastry Cream
Mini fruit tarts filled with vanilla pastry cream in a delicate cookie crust. Top with sliced strawberries or your choice of fresh fruit.
- PREP TIME:
60 MINS - COOK TIME:
30 MINS - TOTAL TIME:
1 HR 30 MINS
I love fruit tarts. You know the ones where the fruit is beautifully arranged in perfect concentric circles on top of some vanilla pastry cream in a golden baked tart shell. They are so pretty you hardly want to cut them. Because the moment you slice it, the fruit always get messed up and the pastry cream spreads everywhere. It just feels wrong to leave so much delicious pastry cream on the plate. My solution – strawberry tartlets with vanilla pastry cream.
Mini fruit tartlets stay pretty right up to the moment you devour them. And because they are small, I usually devour two or three.
I used strawberries for these tartlets but you can use blueberries, raspberries, kiwi or mangoes. Fruit tartlets are very versatile.
Tips for baking tartlet shells
My favorite part of the tartlets is the shell. It is more like a sugar cookie. My kids would actually eat them like cookies if I let them.
Baking the shells used to be a challenge for me because the dough would puff up too much while it baked and the shells would come out rather misshapen. No matter how much I chilled the dough and docked it, I would have the same problem. Trying to fit pieces of aluminum foil on top of the dough in a mini-muffin pan never worked well for me either.
Fortunately, I found the perfect solution from Naomi Robinson at Bakers Royale. She uses mini-muffin liners. You put the liners on top of the dough and then fill it with beans as a weight. The liners are already the perfect size and shape and they make for easy removal. It was one of those “why didn’t I think of that” moments when I found her post.
It is also important to generously butter and flour the mini-muffin pan so the shells will release easily from the pan. I actually prefer to use a non-stick baking spray like Baker’s Joy or PAM Baking Spray because it is much faster than greasing and flouring each well. It’s easy to over spray so I just wipe up any excess with a paper towel.
Can tartlets be made ahead of time?
You can make the tartlet shells and pastry cream a day ahead. Just store them separately until you need them. The strawberries or any cut fruit you’re using should be prepared the same day you’ll be using them. Once the tartlets are assembled, they should be eaten the same day (which is never a problem in our house).
Strawberry Tartlets with Vanilla Pastry Cream
- Author: Nguyet Vo
- Prep Time: 60 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 24 tartlets 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American, French
Description
Mini fruit tarts filled with vanilla pastry cream in a delicate cookie crust. Top with sliced strawberries or your choice of fresh fruit.
Ingredients
UNITS USMSCALE1X2X3X
For the tartlet shells
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- Baking spray (such as Baker’s Joy)
For the vanilla pastry cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar (divided)
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 teaspoon butter
For serving
- Sliced strawberries
- 1/2 cup apricot jam, optional
Instructions
For the tartlet shells
- Make dough. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add vanilla and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and salt; beat until dough just comes together.
- Chill dough. Gather the dough together to form a ball and place it on a sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper. Place another sheet of sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper on top and flatten the ball to a 1/2 inch thick disk. Transfer the dough to the refrigerator and chill until firm, 45 minutes.
- Prep oven and pan. When ready to bake the tartlet shells, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 24-well mini-muffin pan with baking spray (this is very important).
- Roll out dough. On a well floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Use a 2 1/2-inch diameter round cutter and cut out 24 rounds of dough, gathering scraps and re-rolling as necessary. Place a round of dough into each well of the prepared mini-muffin pan. Using your fingers, fit the dough to fit into the well; pleating the dough as necessary. If the dough becomes too soft to work with, chill it in the freezer for a few minutes until it is firm again. Using a small off-set spatula to lift the rounds of dough will also help.
- Chill and prick. Place muffin pan in freezer to chill dough until firm, 10 minutes. Prick the dough a couple of times with a fork and then place a mini-cupcake liner on top of each well of dough and fill it with rice or beans.
- Bake. Bake tartlet shells for 20 minutes, rotating the pan half way through. Remove the muffin liners and beans, and continue baking for another 4-5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let tartlet shells cool in pan 5 minutes. Using the tip of a small paring knife to loosen the edges, gently remove the tartlet shells from the pan and allow to cool completely on baking rack.
For the vanilla pastry cream
- Prep ice bath. Prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl (large enough to fit the saucepan you will be using) about half full with water and ice. Set aside.
- Scald milk. In a saucepan, whisk together milk, vanilla bean and seeds, and 1/4 cup sugar. Heat milk mixture over high heat until mixture just begins to boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Prep eggs. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar until thick and pale. Sprinkle in cornstarch and flour; continue whisking until well combined. Set aside.
- Combine. Remove vanilla bean from milk mixture. Whisk half the hot milk into egg yolk mixture. Pour egg mixture into pan with remaining hot milk; slowly bring to a boil. Continue whisking until thick, about 5 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat, stir in butter and let cool slightly.
- Cool. Gently set the saucepan in the ice bath, being careful to not let any water or ice get into the pan. Stir pastry cream occasionally until it is cool, about 30 minutes. Use pastry cream immediately or press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pastry cream and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
To make the tartlets
- Assemble. Spoon pastry cream into the tartlet shells and top with sliced strawberries. If desired, melt apricot jam in microwave and brush a small amount of jam onto fruit to give it a pretty shine.
strawberry tarts recipe
| Makes: | 4 |
| Skill: | easy |
| Cost: | cheap |
| Prep: | 50 min |
| Cooking: | 25 min |
| (Plus Cooling Time) |
| Nutrition per portion | RDA | |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 669 kCal | 33% |
| Fat | 33.4g | 48% |
| – Saturates | 19.2g | 96% |
| Carbohydrates | 79.1g | 33% |
| – of which Sugars | 34.9g | 39% |
| Protein | 13.0g | 26% |
| Salt | 0.82g | 14% |
Paul Hollywood’s simple recipe for strawberry tarts will make you a pastry pro in no time.
Cream, sweet pastry and juicy, fresh strawberries – what’s not to like about strawberry tarts? The Bake-off judge shows us how to make shortcrust pastry and creme patissiere from scratch with delicious results, sharing some handy tips and tricks along the way. We recommend making during the summer months, between May and September, when British strawberries are in season and at their most flavoursome. Perfect for an afternoon tea or a sweet summer picnic.
Ingredients
- For The Pastry
- 225g plain flour
- 110g butter
- 80g sugar
- 1 large egg, whisked
- For The Creme Patisserie
- 2 free-range eggs
- 30g/1.5oz caster sugar
- 1 tsps corn flour
- 15g/ ½oz plain flour
- 25g/1oz butter
- 140ml milk
- Vanilla pod
- 250g strawberries
- Icing sugar for dusting
Method
- For the pastry, rub the butter and the flour together by hand, using your finger tips. The mix should look like large bread crumbs. Add the whole whisked egg and the sugar. Bring all the ingredients together to form a ball of pastry. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 20 minutes
- For the crème patisserie, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until pale and light. Fold in the corn flour and flour. Bring the milk to the boil in a small saucepan and then whisk it gradually into the egg mixture Pour the mixture into a clean pan and bring it slowly to the boil until it thickens. Simmer for a minute and then take the pan off the heat. Pass through a sift. Split vanilla pod in half length ways, scrape out the seeds and add to the mixture. Cover with cling film and allow to cool. Then place in a piping bag.
- Pre-heat oven to 170°C/150°C fan/325°F/Gas Mark 3.
- Roll out pastry to about 4mm thick. Carefully line the four tartlet tins. Leaving an over hang of pastry. Place on a baking tray. Chill for twenty minutes. Then blind bake pastry for ten minutes.
- Turn down oven to 160°C/140°C fan/300°F/Gas Mark 2. Remove baking beans and prick pastry with a fork and cook for a further ten minutes. Egg wash tarts and cook for a further five minutes. Leave the pastry in the tins and allow to cool. With a small edged serrated knife, trim the excess pastry from the tins. Being very delicate. Remove pastry cases from tartlet tins.
- Pipe in the vanilla crème patisserie. Hull three strawberries slice them three quarters the way down, so the slices are still connected. Fan out strawberries, arrange on top of the crème patisserie. Dust with icing sugar.
Strawberry Tart
Once the weather stats warming up the list of strawberry desserts we want to make grows long, but this easy strawberry tart is always at the top. The crust is a simple no-chill version of a pie crust that we are obsessed with, ever since we used a similar version for our apple tart. It’s a press in and takes all of the stress out of dough while still being perfectly buttery. The filling is a sweet cream cheese with a hint of lemon that makes the strawberries pop. We will be making it all season long!
If you want to make this ahead of time you can bake the crust off and leave unfilled for up to 3 days. The filling can be made and left refrigerated for up to 3 days as well. Wait to assemble the tart until the day you plan to serve it for the crispest crust!
YIELDS:10 SERVINGS
PREP TIME:0 HOURS 15 MINS
TOTAL TIME:3 HOURS 20 MINS
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE CRUST
1 1/3 c.
all-purpose flour
1/4 c.
granulated sugar
1/2 tsp.
kosher salt
10 tbsp.
butter, melted
FOR THE FILLING
1/2 c.
heavy cream
2
(8 oz.) blocks cream cheese, softened
1/2 c.
granulated sugar
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp.
pure vanilla extract
FOR THE TOPPING
1 1/2 lb.
strawberries, hulled and sliced
3 tbsp.
strawberry or raspberry preserves
DIRECTIONS
- Make crust: Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Add melted butter and stir until dough forms. Press mixture into a 10″ or 11″ tart pan with a removable bottom, pressing until dough is smooth. Prick all over with a fork and bake until golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely.
- Meanwhile, make filling: In a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form, 7 minutes. In another large bowl, beat together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add lemon juice and zest, and vanilla. Beat until combined. Fold in whipped cream, then spoon into cooled crust and smooth top.
- Starting on the outside, arrange strawberries on top of tart in a circle until entire tart is covered.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, heat together preserves and 2 teaspoons water until warmed, 30 seconds. Brush over tart and refrigerate until well chilled, 2 hours.