Recipe: Mini Strawberry Tarts Filled with Basil Cream | DessArts (2024)

Ingredients

For the tart dough

• 125 g cake flour
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, cubed into ½ inch pieces, and chilled
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ice cold water, prepare about 50mL to start …only you will be able to judge how much is actually needed

For the filling

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup chopped basil
• 62 g sugar
• 25 g corn starch
• 2 yolks
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• sliced strawberries

Instructions

1. Sift the flour, salt and sugar together into a cold mixer bowl. Add the chilled butter cubes to the dry mix.
2. Using the paddle attachment, mix the butter and dry ingredients on a low speed until the butter pieces are about pea sized.
3. Next, addabout ½ the ice water, mixing by hand.Quickly work the water into thedough.You want the dough to be wet but not sticky. Add more ice water to the drier ingredients if needed. The crumbly mixture should form clumps when you press some of it with your hand.
4. If you think it is too dry, sprinkle your hands with cold water and work the dough. This way you don’t accidentally add too much moisture. Do not knead it too much, just enough to be able to wrap up the dough in plastic. Streaks of butter are okay.
5. Chill the dough for at least an hour or overnight.Roll out your doughand fit it into an 8 inch tart ring or 4 inch molds or mini tart molds.Chill it again for at least 30 minutes.
6. With a fork, make holes in the tart dough to prevent it from rising. Bake at 350°F for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned. Let it cool. (If you are making mini tarts, the cooking time will be about half.)
7. In a saucepan, heat the milk and chopped basil until the milk begins to just boil. Remove from the heat and let the mixture steep for a few minutes before straining out the basil. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and corn starch and then whisk in the egg yolks and vanilla until smooth.
8. Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture while stirring. Return the entire mixture to the sauce pan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. The mixture will thicken and you must continue to stir. Continue to let it boil for about 2 minutes while stirring.
9. Remove the mixture to a cool bowl. It should be smooth not clumpy. Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use or refrigerate if using next day.
10. 10.Whip the heavy cream to medium peaks and fold it into the pastry cream. (If you made the pastry cream the day before, be sure to whip it smooth first.)
11. 11.Fill each cooled pastry shell with the basil cream. Top it with sliced strawberries and sprinkle with basil sugar. (There is no recipe for the basil sugar. I just crushed up a few clean and dried fresh basil leaves with some sugar in my mini food processor.)

Notes