19.8.12

My ultimate strawberry tart


We are in the middle of a HEATWAVE! It was 37 degrees C today, and as I write this post at 11pm at night, it is still 30 degrees outside. There is no air conditioning in my apartment, and baking wasn't exactly the best way to keep the place cool. But I wasn't about to step outside and sweat under the hot sun either. So the lesser of the two evils was chosen, and I set out to make something delicious and summery to make me appreciate this weather a little more.

My sister Tania had stayed for a week on her way back to New York from Jakarta. When we were strolling on Rue de la Convention a couple of days ago, when we were pleasantly surprised by a small fruit shop that had stayed open during the French summer exodus. In the quaint and quiet shop, Tania commented on how ripe and red the strawberries looked and implored that we purchase some. So today, to be at home with a large punnet of gorgeous red strawberries on an idle afternoon, making strawberry tarts seemed to be the way to go.


However, it has to be said that working with tart dough in this kind of weather can be tricky! The high ambient temperature means that the dough can soften up and stick to the counter upon rolling. But this problem could be avoided by working very swiftly and line the tart rings as quickly as possible before the whole thing turns into a sticky mess. For my tarts, I decided to use a chocolate "pâte sablée" recipe by Pierre Herme for the tart shells. They were filled with delicious pistachio cream and jellied strawberry puree before topping them off with fresh strawberries. There is a little surprise in the center as well.. You'll see what I mean soon!




My Ultimate Strawberry Tarts with Chocolate and Pistachio
-makes 6 8cm tarts


Chocolate Pâte Sablée
100 g unsalted butter - cold, cubed
20 g powdered sugar - sifted
35 g ground almonds
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
20 g cocoa powder - sifted
130 g all-purpose flour - sifted

Combine all the dry ingredients
Add in cubed butter and work into the dry ingredients with fingertips to resemble small crumbs


Add in the egg and work into a dough until just incorporated - do not overwork!
Dough will be very soft, place onto a sheet of baking paper, wrap up and refrigerate until firm

Butter tart rings well

Roll out with a rolling pin and with the help of flour to a thickness of 2-3mm 

Use a 14cm cake mold to cut portions of the dough

Line the tart ring, pressing well onto the sides. Make sure the bases are at a right angle.

Cut off excess dough with a small knife

Rest tart shells in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before baking
Poke bases with fork to prevent from rising



Bake at 175 degrees C for about 15-20 minutes - determine doneness by touch
Cool completely

Pistachio Cream
90 g heavy cream
40 g white chocolate, melted
8 g pistachio paste

Combine heavy cream and pistachio paste and bring to a gentle simmer
Pour mixture over the melted white chocolate and stir to combine
Cover with plastic wrap (in contact) and cool down completely in the fridge
Whip or whisk the mixture until voluminous

Crispy Chocolate Surprise
20 g dark chocolate
15 g nutella
15 g feuilletine (crispy flakes)

Melt dark chocolate and combine with nutella
Stir in feuilletine 


Jellied Strawberry Purée
150 g strawberry purée
2 gelatin leaves - soaked and strained
sugar to taste

Warm up half of the strawberry purée into a gentle simmer
Add in the gelatin leaves and whisk to incorporate
Take off heat and pour into a clean bowl
Add in the rest of the purée and stir to combine 
Cool to 30 degrees C before using

Montage
At the base of the tart shells, pipe in a layer of pistachio cream using a piping bag

Dot on some crispy chocolate onto the pistachio cream and cool in fridge to firm up a little bit

Pour in jellied strawberry purée until pistachio cream and crispy chocolate are completely covered

Arrange strawberries on top 
Place tarts in fridge to set the jellied purée
Brush on the strawberries with a pastry glaze for shine ("nappage mirroir neutre")
A little gold leaf never hurts!



I call this my Ultimate strawberry tart because I feel that the flavor and textural combinations work really well, and this tart is super duper good. After taking this cross section pic, I devoured the thing in a couple of bites.


Ultimate indeed.



x Tal

28 comments:

  1. Martin Paris19.8.12

    Dissection shots are always my favorite pics.
    Looks great Talit :)

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    Replies
    1. Hahaha really? This one is especially nice cut through the middle eh :)

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  2. Lovely post and it makes me want to go out and grab a tart right now! Sorry to hear about such a crazy admin screw-up in your earlier post, and congrats!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! So lovely of you to say :).. and I hope you did get your tart! x

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  3. I love the new blog style :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! It's by natashamead.com she's pretty awesome.

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  4. Anonymous5.9.12

    Do you know anything about replacing gelatine leaves with agar agar or any other vegetarian alternatives?

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    Replies
    1. Hi! You can substitute one sheet of gelatin for 2 grams of agar agar. Therefore, for the jellied raspberry purée in this recipe, substitute the two sheets of gelatin for 4 grams of agar agar.

      You should add the powder to the cold puree and bring it to the boil to activate the gelling agents. Agar agar sets at a higher temperature than gelatin, so be sure to keep an eye on it, and use at before it sets!

      Hope that helps! Thanks for the question.

      Tal

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  5. Your attention to detail is very inspiring - all of your food looks so incredibly delicious. Especially these tarts! All the best! :-)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the kind comment Anna! :) Best of luck to you too x

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  6. Anonymous13.10.12

    oh my goddess! again wow

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  7. Anonymous25.10.12

    I have made these tarts yesterday but Pistachio cream was too runny.
    Could you use pistachio paste only 8 gram? please advice !

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    Replies
    1. Hi! It might be that your cream doesn't have a high enough fat content for the mixture to be whipped and stay voluminous. Make sure the cream you use has 35% fat. And it is also important to use white chocolate that contains cocoa butter. Hope this helps, thanks for the question. Good luck :) Talita

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  8. Anonymous6.10.13

    Hi Talita,
    What's the recipe for pastry glaze? Thank u

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    Replies
    1. Hi! Buy the pastry class ready made.. It's too hard and too costly to make from scratch! Thanks for the Q

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  9. Anonymous8.10.13

    hey :) where do you buy the tart pan?

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    Replies
    1. hi where do you live? you can purchase the tart pans online... on http://www.pastrychef.com/TART-RINGS_p_1290.html I use the 80mm

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    2. Anonymous12.10.13

      i live in Brunei Darussalam. I can't find any of these tart pan here :( does that website ship to international countries?

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    3. Anonymous12.10.13

      is there any other substitute to make the tart crust look like that?

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  10. Hi Talita!

    Going to make these and wanted to know if I don't have any feuilletine is there any substitutions for it or do I simply just skip this step! Crunchy chocolate surprise do sound delish! lol.. LOVE all your recipes!

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  11. Hey you should keep searching on google for pastry websites that ship to your country. If you can't find any, don't let "not having the right tart mould" stop you from experimenting and baking awesome pastries!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you very much Talita! You are such an inspiration to me! Looking forward for more of your future posts!

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  12. Anonymous19.10.13

    hi Talita,
    my pistachio cream was too runny , could u tell me what went wrong? The heavy cream i used got enough fat coz i have used that heavy cream for other recipe and it worked. This time the when i whipped it never firm. I used pistachio compound instead of pistachio paste.

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  13. Hi Tatila,
    I love your tarts, they are beautiful. love ur blog :)
    may i ask where did you get your tart rings ? if there is a link for that could you please share it ? Thanks .

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  14. may i ask how many minutes in refrigerating the tart shells?

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  15. Anonymous23.3.16

    Hi Talita!I am so happy to have found your blog! You are so inspiring and talented! I love your creations! Thank you so much for sharing with us! you inspired me to prepare a dessert for a Christmas dinner with my girlfriends. And now I'll for sure try this Strawberry tart! They look amazing! Congratulation from London!

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  16. Anonymous25.7.18

    You can use a muffin tin to sub for the rings. With pastry brush liberally brush tin with melted butter. Cut the cold pastry into strips and place along bottom of muffin tin. Cut out circle from cold pastry and fit into bottom of tin. press to seal the side and bottom together. Place cling film over pastry and press down into tin. Fill with rice and bake.

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  17. merci bcp pour le partage ^^

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