French Strawberry Custard Tart

Delicious and refreshing French Strawberry Tart with Custard is the perfect dessert to welcome the start of summer with your family&friends. The strawberries are in season now and you see juicy strawberries everywhere. This classic fruit tart is the perfect choice for your afternoon tea, family gatherings, or a celebration.

Jump to:

• Why This Recipe Works?
• Ingredients and Substitutes
• How to Make Strawberry Tart?
• Related Recipes
• Top Tip From the Chef
• French Strawberry Custard Tart

But don't let the word "French" fool you. This fruit tart with custard is not one of those 5 hours, 50 steps, super complicated recipes. On the contrary, it is a relatively simple recipe and all you need to do is to prepare a basic sweet pastry dough, diplomat cream (a.k.a crème diplomat, a type of thick&delicious French custard), and chop up some juicy strawberries. It’s also relatively quick to make this tart apart from the waiting times for chilling the shortcrust pastry and the diplomat cream.

If you love French cuisine, you might want to have a look at my other French recipes such as Traditional French Onion Soup, Mousse au Chocolat - French Chocolate Mousse, and Chicken Liver Pâté.

Why This Recipe Works?

• This easy strawberry tart with French custard is so light, refreshing, creamy, and bursting with berry flavors.

• It is a crowd-pleaser, and makes 8 servings.

• You can prepare the pastry and creme diplomat a couple of days in advance and store it in the fridge until ready to assemble. 

• This simple recipe is very easy to follow with step-by-step pictures and instructions.

• It’s elegant enough for a celebration, but it’s so simple that you can put it together on any day of the week. 

Ingredients and Substitutes

Sweet Pastry Dough Ingredients

• Butter - I always use unsalted butter for pastries as I want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. Make sure your butter is chilled and put it into the freezer for 10-15 minutes after cutting it into cubes.

• Plain white flour - It is also known as all-purpose flour. It is perfect for making cakes, cookies, pastries and thickening sauces. Sift it before using it in your pastries.

• Icing Sugar - I use a little amount of icing sugar for my sweet pastry dough to give the tart case a bit of sweetness.

• Almond flour - A small amount of almond flour adds flavour and richness to the pastry.

• Salt - It helps to balance the flavour and enhance other ingredients. Adding a small amount of salt is essential in most dessert recipes.

• Egg - Use a fresh, free-range egg at room temperature.

Diplomat Cream Ingredients

• Milk - I always use full-fat milk, which is sold in blue bottles in the UK. It is essential to use milk with high-fat content to achieve a rich&delicius custard which is the key element of this French Strawberry tart.

• Sugar - Both granulated and caster sugar works great with this recipe.

• Egg yolks - They add richness and provide structure. Some recipes call for whole eggs however I strongly advise using egg yolk only for the best texture and flavor.

• Vanilla paste - I use vanilla bean paste or extract for deep&delicious vanilla flavor. Avoid using artificial vanilla for making pastry cream.

• Flour - I use plain flour and mix it with cornflour to thicken the pastry cream.

• Butter - Use good quality unsalted butter. It adds shine and flavor to the pastry creme.

• Cream - You can use either double cream/heavy cream or whipping cream to make the creme Chantilly. Make sure it is cold before whisking and keep it refrigerated until you need it. While whipping the cream you have to start on low speed and then gradually increase. Stop beating the cream when it reaches a pipeable consistency to avoid over-whipping it.

• Strawberries - Use the best fresh strawberries you can find. Frozen strawberries are not suitable for this recipe. You can substitute them with raspberries or any berries that are in season.

• Jam for nappage - Apricot jam is the most popular for glazing fruit tarts in France. But other jams such as strawberry jam, raspberry jam, quince jelly or peach jam work perfectly too. Pass it through a fine-mesh strainer to discard any chunks or seeds before applying them to your tart.

How to Make Strawberry Tart?

Making French Strawberry Tart, despite its French origin, is quite simple. However, to achieve the best results, you need to follow a few simple tips:

Prepare the Basic Sweet Pastry Dough

To make the dough, place the flour, butter, icing sugar, salt and almonds in a mixing bowl. Work the dough by rubbing it between your fingertips. Add the egg and mix using a fork.

Turn the mixture out on a work surface and knead to form a smooth dough without overworking it. Flatten the dough out slightly, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Once the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 180°C. Let the dough sit at room temperature for 10 minutes until it’s soft enough to roll but not too soft. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to ½ cm thickness / 23 cm (9") circle. Line a 20 cm (8") fluted, loose-bottomed tart tin.

Press the dough firmly against the sides and bottom without stretching it and trim off the excess dough. Prick the dough all over with a fork, cover and put in the freezer for 30 minutes before blind baking. This step is necessary to avoid the pastry shrinking while blind baking.

Preheat the oven to 175° C (fan oven). Line the tart tin with parchment paper or tin foil, covering the edges to avoid them from burning. Fill with dried chickpeas or rice to prevent the dough from rising and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove the chickpeas or rice and cook for another 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Let it cool down on a wire rack before filling with the pastry cream.

Prepare the Diplomat Cream

Diplomat cream (crème diplomat) is a custard made with a mixture of pastry cream and whipped cream. I like it better using it for tarts or cakes such as Eclair Cake (Ekpa Pasta) and Strawberry Mille Feuille as it has a fluffier texture than the pastry cream. Start making the diplomat cream while the sweet pastry dough is in the freezer, just before blind baking it.

Place the milk and butter in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Remove the saucepan from the heat. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture becomes pale and thick.

Add the flour along with the cornflour and whisk to combine. Add half of the hot milk into the flour-egg mixture. Whisk well until it is pale yellow.

Pour the mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Return the saucepan to heat and cook until it thickens, whisking continuously. Let it boil for a minute stirring continuously then remove from the heat. Let it cool down.

When the pastry cream has reached room temperature, start whipping the double cream or whipping cream until you have stiff peaks. Whisk the pastry cream to loosen, then gently fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream in 2 stages.

Assemble the Tart

To assemble the tart, spoon the diplomat cream into the baked sweet pastry shell and level the top with the back of a spoon or a spatula. Arrange the strawberries over the pastry cream and brush them with nappage.

Related Recipes

For more tasty sweet treats why not try:

• Sekerpare (Turkish Semolina Cookies)

• Turkish Pistachio Baklava

• Sticky Toffee Pudding

• Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Apple and Blackberry Pie

• Apple and Blueberry Crumble

• Homemade Turkish Baklava Recipe

• Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins

• Turkish Fig Pudding

• Lemon Blueberry Cake

Top Tip From the Chef

• Use a tart pan with a removable bottom, which will support the crust when lifting your tart.

• Avoid using substitutes and changing the recipe unless you can reformulate this tart recipe and be able to keep the balance in texture as well as flavour. 

• Always measure your ingredients with a Digital Kitchen Scale.

I hope you enjoy the process of making this classic French Strawberry Tart as much as you enjoy eating it! 🙂

Bon appétit! / Afiyet Olsun!

Did you make this recipe?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and tag @cookingorgeous on Instagram and hashtag it #cookingorgeous.

FOOD SAFETY

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Don’t leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.

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