Strawberry Tart

Serves 6

English strawberries are by far the tastiest and in summer there is a plentiful supply of big, juicy, ripe strawberries. Once you have eaten as many as you can, ideal with cream, the next thing to do is make a beautiful tasty summer dessert that does English strawberries justice. 

A strawberry tart is irresistible, the bright red strawberries layered carefully on a tart filled with creamy custard is a perfect recipe, you can make it for any occasion and everyone will be impressed. If you have been invited to a BBQ bring round a strawberry tart, it will be very much appreciated, dessert is a very important course and everyone forgets about dessert at a BBQ.

Strawberry tart is perfect for a dinner party, the colours are so beautiful and it is an elegant dessert; serve with a dollop of clotted cream and it is the ideal end to any sophisticated evening. Red is the colour of love, a homemade strawberry tart is a little extra treat on a birthday or anniversary to show how much you care about your lovely lady and make her day truly special.

It would be so easy to get children to eat fruit if they all tasted as good as strawberries, especially strawberries on a delicious tart. This dessert is perfect for any special family occasion, the whole family can enjoy it together and they will definately be asking for seconds. Making two is always a good idea and if there is some left, there is no need for it to go to waste, treat yourself tomorrow lunch, after all you are the chef.

Ingredients

Pastry

• 250g plain flour
• 125g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs

Or

• Readymade shortcrust pastry

Filling

• 250ml milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 3 large egg yolks
• 35g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 250g strawberries
• ¼ packet strawberry jelly 

Method

For the pastry tart

1. Mix the butter and flour together until they look like bread crumbs, and then whisk the egg and sugar together.
2. Mix the egg and sugar into the flour mix to form a dough.
3. Rest the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Grease a 10cm tart tin. Roll the pastry out to and place in the tin, rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
5. Prick the pastry base with a fork then line the top of the pastry with baking parchment and fill with baking beans or rice to weigh down the pastry when you bake it. Bake in the oven at 190C for 10 minutes, then remove the beans or rice and baking parchment, reduce the heat to 180C and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.

For the filling

1. Pour the milk in a sauce pan and add the vanilla pod. Bring to a simmer then remove from the heat.
2. Whisk the egg yolk, sugar and corn flour together.
3. Remove the vanilla pod from the milk. Then add the egg mix to the sauce pan and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, until custard mix is thickened.
4. Allow to cool.
5. Pour the custard mix into the tart.
6. Place the strawberries on top.
7. Melt the jelly and spoon on top of the strawberries to glaze.