French Strawberry Dessert Recipes

FRENCH STRAWBERRY TART (TARTE AUX FRAISES)

Steps:

• mix softened butter, ground almonds, sugar with a rubber spatula. Add the egg and gently mix just to combine. Cover it with plastic film in contact and refrigerate.
• preheat the oven to 355 F/180 F. Thaw the frozen butter puff pastry and, using a rolling pin, roll it out between two parchment paper sheets to 1/5 inches/5 mm thick. Line a 9-inch/23 cm fluted tart pan, with a removable base, with the pastry, pressing it into the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim the edge with a sharp knife and prick the bottom with a fork. Bake for 25 minutes. Take the pastry out of the oven and lightly press the pastry base to flatten, using a paper towel. Decrease the oven temperature to 300 F/150 C. With a spoon or a small bent spatula, spread the almond cream. Bake for a further 20 minutes. Remove it from the love, let it cool completely in the pan, then transfer the pastry base to a serving platter.
• split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, scrape the seeds with the tip of a knife. In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and corn starch with a hand whisk. Pour milk into a medium saucepan, add scraped vanilla seeds, and the pot split in half, and bring to a boil. Remove the vanilla pod, add hot milk while stirring to the egg yolk mixture. Pour the mixture back to the saucepan and cook the cream over low to medium heat, stirring constantly. Stop cooking when the cream thickens. Remove the pot from the heat, add butter, and mix. Transfer the pastry cream to a shallow dish, cover with plastic in contact (it should touch the whole surface of the cream). Let it cool at room temperature.
• whisk the pastry cream with a hand whisk and spread it on top of the baked almond cream. Wash, drain, and hull strawberries. Leave a few of them with green tops for decoration. Cut strawberries in half lengthwise and arrange them over the tart. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.
• sprinkle the edge of the tart with icing (powdered) sugar. To highlight strawberry haves, take some, sprinkle them with icing sugar and place them back on the tart. Sprinkle the dessert with chopped pistachios.

CLASSIC FRENCH STRAWBERRY TART (TARTE AUX FRAISES)

Steps:

• Make sure you read the cooking notes before you start.
• Step 1 -To make the crust, whisk together in a mixing bowl the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cubed butter and mix with your fingers (or pulse in a food processor), until you get a crumbly consistency and pea-size bits of butter are still visible. Add the egg and mix until the dough roughly comes together into a ball; do not overmix. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
• Pre-heat your oven to 350F (180C) with a rack in the middle.
• Grease and flour a 9-inch (23 cm) tart pan. Transfer the dough onto a floured working surface and roll it out to a 12-inch (31cm) circle. Transfer the crust to the pan. Cut any excess crust that hangs over the edge, and poke the bottom of the crust all over with a fork. Line the top of the crust with foil or parchment paper and place pie weights or dried beans to keep the pie crust from puffing when baking.
• Bake the crust for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment paper filled with weights and bake for 10 more minutes, until the edges of the crust are slightly golden. Set aside to cool completely.
• Step 2 - To make the crème pâtissière, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm up the milk and vanilla. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, egg yolk and sugar until lighter in color and fluffy. Whisk in the flour and cornstarch. When the milk is just simmering, pour it into the egg mixture, and whisk until just incorporated.
• Transfer back into the saucepan, whisk occasionally and remove from the heat as soon as it begins to thicken and bubble. Pour into a clean bowl, and cover the crème with plastic wrap; the wrap should touch the whole surface of the crème to prevent a skin from forming. Set aside to cool completely.
• Step 3 - To assemble the tart, place the crust onto a serving plate. Spread the crème pâtissière over the bottom of the crust. Wash, drain, de-stem and halve the strawberries. Gently place them on top of the crème in a circular pattern (bottom side down).
• Warm up the apricot jam in a microwave for 15 seconds and pass it through a fine mesh strainer if needed (to discard of fruit chunks). Gently brush the jam over the strawberries. Chill the tart for at least one hour before serving.

FRENCH STRAWBERRY CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray an 8-inch round cake pan with cooking spray.
• Whip together 1 cup sugar and butter using an electric mixer in a mixing bowl until pale and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture, and beating just until combined after each addition. Fold in strawberries.
• Spread batter into the prepared cake pan. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar evenly over the top.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.