ROSE & IVY In Season Now | Strawberries And A Recipe for Tarte Aux Fraises

What does heaven taste like you might ask yourself, well one idea is this recipe for a tarte aux fraise, a confection piled high with fresh, seasonal strawberries atop vanilla-laced pastry cream. As I continue to bake and cook myself around the world, when it comes to pastry, all roads lead back to France. For this culinary trip, I have revisited one of my favorite cookbooks, The Cook’s Atelier: Recipes, Techniques, and Stories from Our Our French Cooking School by Marjorie Taylor and Kendall Smith Franchini. I recently went strawberry picking and it was glorious. It had been years since I harvested so many berries by hand, so I enjoyed every moment of picking this beautiful ruby fruit in the idyllic country setting of Jones Family Farms in Connecticut. While this recipe might look advanced, if you break it down into three parts it’s very easy, especially if you know that at the end of it, you will have a show-stopping spring dessert that will become your new go-to this time of year. While I used strawberries, this would also be delicious with raspberries, blueberries and peaches.

Photography & Styling by Alison Engstrom

Tarte Aux Fraises

For the Pâte Sablée (Makes Two Shells)

1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

3 egg yolks

3 tablespoons heavy cream, preferably organic

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For the Crème Pâtissière

2 cups whole milk, preferably organic

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

5 egg yolks, at room temperature

3 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon salted butter

**

2 quarts strawberries, preferably organic, sliced into three pieces lengthwise

1/2 cup heavy cream, preferably organic

Directions: To prepare the tart crust or the pâte sablée, combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter into the base of a food processor until the butter is broken down but there are still clumps of butter, this will yield a flakier crust (note: you can also do this by hand just work the dough until it begins to come together). Add the egg yolks, cream and flour and continue to pulse until combined. Divide dough into two parts and turn out onto two pieces of parchment paper large enough to completely cover the dough. Chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours. You can freeze the other dough for future use.

Meanwhile prepare the custard filling or crème pâtissière. In a heavy bottom pan over low heat, add milk, vanilla and sugar and allow to come to just below a boil, the sugar will dissolve while cooking. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the egg yolks and whisk until they are a frothy consistency, about one minute. Gently stream the hot milk mixture into the yolks whisking constantly taking care not to cook the eggs. Return back to low heat and continue to whisk vigorously for about two minutes until mixture thickens. Pour into a bowl, stir in butter and cover with parchment directly against the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until completely cooled or up to two days.

To prepare the tart, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator and lightly flour a working surface. Roll dough out until it can fit over the pie pan—it it breaks, you can piece it back together, this dough is very forgiving. Bake shell for ten minutes just until golden. Allow to cool completely before assembly.

For Assembly: Remove the pastry cream from the refrigerator, and give it a few stirs. In a medium mixing bowl or a standing mixer, add 1/2 cup heavy cream and beat until soft peaks form. Gently fold whipped cream into pastry cream and add into tart shell smoothing it out so it is even. Add sliced strawberries by fanning them out by starting at the outer edge. Enjoy immediately or keep covered in the refrigerator.

This recipe was adapted from the Summer Berry Tart from The Cook’s Atelier: Recipes, Techniques, and Stories from Our Our French Cooking School.