La Durée Tartes Aux Fraises (Strawberry Tart)

This recipe is straight from the La Durée: Sucré book, one of my favourite dessert books!. Enjoy!

You need to start with the dough, which you can prepare a day ahead, or on the same day. 

Pâte Sucrée aux Amandes

Sweet Almond Pastry

½ cup | 120 g butter, very cold

½/ cup + 1 tbsp | 70 g confectioners' (icing) sugar

¼ cup | 25 g ground almonds (almond flour)

1 pinch of fleur de sel (or other coarse sea salt)

1 pinch of vanilla powder (or a few drops of vanilla extract) (optional)

1 egg

1 ⅔ cups | 200 g cake flour

I ... Sift the confectioners' sugar. Cut the butter into small pieces and place in a bowl. (Or, if you have a stand mixer, place in the bowl of the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.) Work the butter to homogenize and then add the following ingredients, one by one, making sure to fully incorporate each into the mixture before the next addition: sifted confectioners' sugar, ground almonds, fleur de sel, vanilla, egg and flour. Combine ingredients just until the dough comes together; do not overwork the dough. This will give the pastry its desired crumbly texture.

2 ... Form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours before using. If possible, it is better to prepare the dough one day ahead; it will be easier to roll out.

Chef's tip

This recipe makes 16 oz 450 g of dough, and the final texture depends entirely on the proportions that go with 1 egg. Therefore, I suggest you make the entire recipe even if you do not need that much dough. If you have left over, you can roll it out to ¼o inch | 2 mm thick, without adding too much flour when working with it. Cut out small biscuits, 1 ¼x 1 ¼ inch | 3x

3-cm squares or ¾ x 1 ½-inch | 2 x 4 cm rectangles. Otherwise, keep unrolled dough in the refrigerator for a maximum of 5 days for another use.

Tarte Fraise Mascarpone

Strawberry Mascarpone Tart

Sweet almond pastry for tart shell

12 ½ oz | 350 g dough: see basic recipe

2 ½ tbsp all-purpose flour for work surface

1 ½ tbsp butter for tart pan

Mascarpone Cream

2 gelatin sheets (½ tbsp | 4 g powdered gelatin)

¼ cup | 60 ml heavy (double) cream

½ cup + 2 tbsp | 125 g granulated sugar (too sweet for me – I do 90g)

2 1/4 cups | 500 g mascarpone

3 cups | 400 g strawberries

EQUIPMENT

Tart pan, 9 ½-inch | 24 cm diameter, 1 inch | 2 cm high

SWEET ALMOND PASTRY FOR TART SHELL

1 • Butter the tart pan. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough to 1/10 inch | 2 mm thick and press into the buttered pan. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

2 ... Preheat the oven to 340*F | 170°C | gas mark 3

Remove tart shell from the refrigerator. Using a fork, prick the surface of the dough to keep from puffing up during baking. Fit a round piece of parchment paper over the dough, carefully pressing into the corners and working up the sides so it will stay in place in the oven. Place dried beans or pie weights on top, spreading them out in an even layer.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes until lightly coloured. Take out of the oven and remove dried beans and parchment paper. If the pastry is still pale, return to oven uncovered, just long enough to finish baking and to colour slightly. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

MASCARPONE CREAM AND ASSEMBLY

My Tips! I used gelatine powder. Measure 4g on a scale. Powder it over 1/4 cup of very cold water. Wait ten minutes. Use a double boiler afterwards to dissolve the gelatine powder completely. This mixture is then ready to pour over your boiled heavy cream and sugar mixture.

Do NOT refrigerate the gelatin mix or it will harden and you won't be able to incorporate it nicely into the mascarpone. IF it does solidify, do the double boiler method again (place your heatproof bowl of gelatine mix over a bowl of hot water). Mix until the lumps are out – this will take good amount of mixing. Then you can incorporate into the mascarpone. Crisis averted!

1. Place the gelatin sheets in a small bowl of very cold water. Allow to soften for 10 minutes.
2. Drain the gelatin sheets, squeezing hara to remove all excess liquid.
   In a saucepan, bring the cream and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and incorporate the drained gelatin. Allow to cool completely.
3. .. Using a wooden or rubber spatula, first mix the mascarpone by itself in a bowl until smooth. Continue to mix and little by little, pour in the cold mixture above.
   Fill the cooled baked tart shell with mascarpone cream. Freeze for 20 minutes until the cream is firm.
4. Meanwhile, rinse the strawberries and drain on a dish towel. Hull and slice in half lengthwise. Finish the tart by arranging sliced strawberries in a decorative pattern on top of the cream.

Chef's tip
To make the dough resistant to liquid and prevent it from soaking in the mascarpone cream, brush the baked tart shell with melted white chocolate.
To melt the chocolate: place in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Coat pastry and freeze for 10 minutes to harden before filing with cream.