I haven’t updated in so long! Yes, I broke my two-posts-a-week habit. I decided to move to another city, and so began the hectic schedule of events – packing, selling, cleaning, unpacking. And I’m still unpacking the last few boxes (sigh). We moved into an old 1920s house in Burlingame – I’ll have photos to show later. Great area, friendly neighbors, a cool detached garage/workshop, and finally, a backyard for bunny to play in.
Anyway, I haven’t had the time to cook, let alone find the time to eat between work and moving. But once I did, I went all out and baked a strawberry tart – the kind you find at fancy French cafes, with a rich crust, creamy pastry filling, and fresh fruit topping.
What makes this even better (yes, it’s possible) is the amazing glaze that goes on top of it all. Most bakeries use a clear gelatin glaze, which is beautiful but tasteless. This recipe has a baslamic-strawberry glaze, made from the juice extracted from the same strawberries that are on the tart….brilliant.
I knew what I wanted to do but didn’t find the exact recipe I was looking for so I pieced together three different recipes for each of the three components (crust, filling, glaze). Here are the sources:
- Baslamic-Strawberry Glaze: from Simply Recipe’s Strawberry Marscapone Tart
- Pastry Cream Filling: from Joy of Baking’s Fruit Tart
- Tart Crust: from Smitten Kitchen’s Simplest Apple Tart + extra sugar (see recipe below). I used this crust recipe because it worked so well before.
It’s a bit of a process but I assure you it’s well worth it. Or you can just look at the pictures instead. Either way, enjoy!
Filling and Glaze:
2 lbs strawberries, stemmed and quartered
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp orange zest, divided
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (substitute a teaspoon of lemon juice if you don’t have balsamic)
Crust:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 tablespoons chilled water
Pastry Cream:
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (I used 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/8 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Making the Strawberry-baslamic Glaze:
Gently combine strawberries, half of the orange zest, and the granulated sugar in large bowl so that the strawberries are coated with sugar. Let sit to macerate for 30 minutes.
After the strawberries have macerated for 30 minutes, place a sieve over a bowl and drain the liquid out of the strawberry mixture into the bowl. Take that strawberry liquid and put it in a small saucepan. Add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar to the saucepan, and bring to a boil on medium high heat. Boil until the liquid has reduced to the consistency of syrup, remove from heat and let cool.
Making the Crust
Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl; add 2 tablespoons of the butter. Blend in a mixer until dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Add remaining butter; mix until biggest pieces look like large peas.
Dribble in water, stir, then dribble in more, until dough just holds together. Flatten into a 4-inch-thick disk; refrigerate. After at least 30 minutes, remove; let soften so it’s malleable but still cold. Smooth cracks at edges. On a lightly floured surface, roll into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Dust excess flour from both sides with a dry pastry brush.
Place dough in a lightly greased 9-inch round tart pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.
Making the Pastry Cream
In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together. Sift the flour and cornstarch together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste. Set aside.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan combine the milk and vanilla extract on medium heat until boiling. Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling.
Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 – 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.
Remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool.
Preparing the strawberries
Ahh, I love summer. Not only are strawberries beautiful this time of the year, they are a great deal (I got two boxes for $4!).
This was my first time “macerating” fruit. All it means is using sugar to extract the juices from the strawberries. Surprisingly, it didn’t add any sweetness to the strawberries pieces itself, or make them soggy, but it managed to extract a good amount of liquid, while keeping the texture of the strawberries.
The strawberries start to take on a different form as soon as the sugar touches them. It’s pretty interesting – they get goopy and the edges become round. It looks gross, but it eventually goes away once all the liquid drains out (about 30 minutes).
Tart Crust
Pie crusts always include a lot of butter. Yum.
The crust before baking.
The finished crust tasted great, but the shape didn’t come out right. I may have to buy some pie weights – my crust shrank and bubbled up.
Pastry Cream Filling
The custard came out perfect! It was quite a process though. I had to mix part of it in a mixing bowl while boiling the milk and vanilla on the stove – then I had to pour all of that into the mixing bowl, and then put everything in the mixing bowl back in the pot on the stove. I think the whole reason was to prevent the egg in the cream from curdling from heat.
The custard turned out to be just the right amount.
The glaze
The strawberry juice extracted from the maceration process.
Making the glaze by boiling strawberry juice and balsamic vinegar. What a fantastic combination of ingredients! The end result tasted like delicious port wine. This recipe makes more glaze than you’ll need which is great, because it’s good on yogurt and ice cream later.
Putting it together
Finally! Here are all the parts, cooled and ready to be assembled.
The finished tart, just like the kind you get a the hoity-toity French cafes.
lovely!
Oh man that looks tasty!
thanks!
Hey Paula~
Ely and I were just discussing our ideas about a fresh strawberry pie without the overly sweet glaze that many put on it! We will have to try this recipe. :-)
You moved to Burlingame??? Does that “we” imply you and Mike?
BTW~ your dad forwarded your last website creation to my mom, who forwarded to me………you are brilliant. Will you have time to create that beauty for the Matthew Tsern Foundation?
xoxo,
Gigi
Yah bunnies love to play in a wide yard… good choice. Most of the time when my bunnies are out of their rabbit hutch they are in the backyard harvesting my lettuce. Not actually harvesting but eating (lol). The strawberry recipe rocks I like to make one tomorrow.
Haha, how cute! My rabbit thinks of the backyard as a giant buffet as well.