Strawberry Tart with Pastry Cream

Strawberry Tart

This tart is every bit as good as it looks, and surprisingly straightforward to make. The key to success is to have a proper tart pan. I've tried making tarts in pie plates before and the results were disastrous. The high, sloped walls make it impossible to create a dainty crust, and don't even dream of extracting the tart from a pie plate in one piece.

As long as you avoid the gourmet kitchen shops, a sturdy tart pan will cost you less than the ingredients for a single tart but last a lifetime. Then from that tart forward, everything you make looks fresh from the bakery.

The recipe pictured above can be found in Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. The only changes I made from the base recipe was to brush the crust with dark chocolate before adding in the pastry cream. It adds a welcome surprise to that first bite of tart. Oh, and when it says to thin the glaze with liquer, tequila was the closest substitute I had on hand.

The story as to why there's a partial bottle of tequila on my shelf will have to wait for another day...