Strawberry Tartlets

I bought 4 tartlets pans a few weeks ago and I knew that I wanted to start with strawberry tartlets, because those are my favorite tartlets. Today I bought some strawberries, which are btw ridiculously overpriced here in Holland! 3 euros for 500 gram ($4.20 for 2 cups)! Last year they were only 2 euros… Aside from spending so much on the strawberries, all went very well. They are certainly much easier to make than I thought it would be. Tart dough is so easy to work with, much easier than pie dough. And they came out looking really good! Plus they taste wonderful, so I rate these ‘tartelettes’ 5 out of 5!

- 300 gr strawberries, sliced in half

Tart Dough recipe: Martha Stewart - Baking Handbook

Ingredients:
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons heavy cream

Instructions:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and confectioners’ sugar. Mix on low speed until combined, about 2 minutes.
- Add egg yolks, and mix until incorporated, about 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add ¾ cup flour, and mix on low speed just until the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add remaining ¾ cup flour along with the salt and cream, and mix just until flour is no longer visible, about 1 minute.
- Turn out dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, and shape into a flattened disk. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours of overnight. The dough can be frozen up to 1 month; thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to an ½ inch thickness. With a sharp paring knife, cut out rounds of dough using a tartlet pan as a guide, leaving a ½ inch border around the edge. Fit the dough into tartlet pans, and lightly prick the bottom of the dough in each pan all over with a fork. Refrigerate tartlet shells until chilled, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. When tartlets are chilled, bake for 13 to 15 minutes until light golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack. Remove the shells from the pans and set aside.

Pastry Cream recipe: makes 2 ½ cups, but you can halve this recipe, I only needed about 1 cup.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups whole milk
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped
- pinch of salt
- 4 large egg yolks
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Instructions:
- In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, ¼ cup sugar, vanilla bean with seeds, and salt. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a simmer.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cornstarch, and remaining ¼ sugar. Whisking constantly, slowly pour about ½ cup of the hot-milk mixture into the egg-yolk mixture. Continue adding milk mixture, ½ cup at a time, until it has been incorporated. Pour mixture back into saucepan, and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens, about 2 minutes. Remove and discard vanilla bean.
- Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment. Add butter, and beat on medium speed until the butter melts and the mixture cools, about 5 minutes.
- Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface of pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. Just before using, beat on low speed until smooth.


My favorite pastry cream!


How gorgeous are these strawberries? I made sure to pick out really huge strawberries.


The tartlets before they went into the oven. Making the tart dough was so easy that I didn't feel the need to take pictures of the dough-making process.


For the assembling: you take your baked and cooled tartlet.


Fill it up with 3 tablespoons of pastry cream.


And top it with about 5 slices of strawberries.


And tada!!! So easy and delicious!

Comments

So great pictures, I can't stop thinking of how yummy it could be! :)) Perfect summer dessert! :)
apparentlyjessy said…
Simple, delicious, and super pretty to boot! I'll look forward to seeing more tartlets now!
Anonymous said…
Nice pictures, nice tart muold.
Anonymous said…
nice tart mould, nice pictures
Marléne said…
Can anybody explain how much butter is "6 tablespoons"? Normally I dose butter in grammes :(
Paris Pastry said…
Hi Leni! I hope you read my comment I replied to you the other day..

6 tablespoons of butter = 85 grams.
I found this great converter: http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/butter_converter.html
Marléne said…
That converter is indeed very helpful! Thanks :)
And yes, I've read your comment, thanks so much for answering.
Nura Noor said…
Omigod! I just made the perfect pastry cream and thanks to you. I have been trying all sorts of recipe and you are my 4th attempt and it turns out perfect! I'm so excited. Thank you so much for sharing.

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