A strawberry tart

This little bake came about as I had a couple of punnets of strawberries left in the fridge as a result of me failing to use them in the Christmas Day trifle and a stash of leftover mince pie pastry in the freezer. With friends coming over, a strawberry tart seemed the obvious choice.

With the pastry (recipe used here) rolled out to the width of a pound coin, I lined a loose-based tart tin (leaving the edges hanging over) and chilled for approximately twenty minutes. Pricked all over with a fork and lined with baking parchment and baking beads (in my case, rice, how I haven’t got round to buying baking beads I don’t know), the tart case was blind-baked for approximately twenty minutes at 160˚C (fan), then for a further ten with the beads and parchment removed and brushed with eggwash. The tart case was left to cool, before its edges were trimmed off and it was popped out of the tin.

For the crème pâtissière I followed Mary Berry’s recipe in the Baking Bible (page 157-158, under her instructions for the Gâteau Saint Honorè). This was my first foray into making crème pâtissière and I was really pleased with the result (and crucially, didn’t find it too difficult!), however, it did yield enough to fill at least two tarts and hence, I now have a stash ready to go in the freezer. I didn’t have a vanilla pod so substituted it for a few drops of vanilla essence (added once the egg mixture and milk were combined), which provided the flavour no problem. Covering the surface tightly with clingfilm, though a little fiddly, really did the job of preventing a skin forming.

Once cool, I poured the crème pâtissière into the tart case and simply covered it with slices of fresh strawberry before glazing it with a little heated, and strained, raspberry jam.

I am linking this up to the No Waste Food Challenge December: Christmas Leftovers hosted by Kate at Turquoise Lemons.