Strawberry season is one of my favorite times of the year! I find fresh local strawberries to have so much more flavor than the kind you can buy from the store through the year so I take full advantage of the season when it arrives. Usually, we go strawberry picking but since the pandemic has hit we have taken advantage of the drive-through at our local farm to buy flats of strawberries. I’ve bought two flats in the past week!
I decided to do a strawberry tart for our father’s day dessert to use some of our fresh strawberries. I used my French Lemon Lime Tart as a jumping-off point. I made the crust and the lemon filling and since my daughter does not like cooked strawberries, I decided to top the tart decoratively with sliced strawberries.
I didn’t want the lemon to overwhelm the strawberries so I didn’t add lemon zest to the crust and only added the zest of 1 lemon instead of 3 to the filling. I took inspiration from my Salted Caramel and Apple Tart for the top decoration and layered the strawberries in concentric circles over the top of the tart to give the look of a flower. To keep the strawberries looking fresh, I heated up some strawberry jam and brushed a layer of the melted jam over the top of the fruit. Then for some color contrast, I added some chopped pistachios.
This was such a refreshing dessert to have on a hot summer day! The strawberries, being freshly picked, were full of flavor and the lemon added an extra bit of brightness. It was a stunning dessert full of simple flavors.
Ingredients
-
For the Crust
- For the Lemon Cream
- To finish
Instructions
-
For the Crust
- Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in egg and mix to combine.
- Add flour, almond flour, salt and lime zest. Beat together until the mixture forms a cohesive ball. (You can also mix by hand with a spatula)
- Place on some plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Chill for at least 1 hour.
- On a floured counter, roll the dough to a roughly 11-inch/27 cm diameter. Place the dough in a 9-inch/23 tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough firmly to the bottom and sides of the pan and cut off the excess. Liberally prick the bottom of the tart shell with a fork to prevent it from puffing up during baking. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours in the freezer.
- Preheat the oven to 320F/160C. Place the tart on a baking sheet, remove the plastic wrap and bake until golden, about 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan and adding the filling. For the Lemon Cream
- In a small bowl, combine gelatine and water. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- In a medium saucepan, combine 3 eggs plus the leftover egg from the crust, the lemon juice, sugar, salt and lemon zest. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens and just begins to bubble, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Whisk in the gelatin until combined.
- Gradually whisk in the butter until melted and the mixture is homogenous. Pour in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the lemon cream. Chill for 3-4 hours until the mixture is set. For Assembly
- Place tart shell on a serving plate. Spoon the lemon cream in the middle of the tart shell and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Let the cream chill for 2 hours to firm up.
- Starting with the outer edge. Lay the strawberries around the top with points facing outwards in overlapping circles until the entire surface of the tart is covered. Finish with one whole strawberry in the centre.
- Heat the strawberry jam in the microwave for 20-30 seconds until it becomes runny. Using a pastry brush, glaze the strawberries with the jam. Sprinkle decoratively with pistachios.
