None of my usual birthday cake food groups were calling my name when I started thinking about what kind of treat I wanted to make myself this year. (For reference they are: Cookie Dough, Funfetti, S’mores and Chocolate/Peanut Butter.) I started flipping through a few cookbooks for inspo when I realized I STILL hadn’t made anything from Sweet Enough, which I got in Seattle when I went to see my imaginary BFF Alison Roman. So even though strawberries are out of season, and even though I was just talking about not loving fruit desserts, I decided to make Alison’s Simple Fruit Tart.

Honestly, what could be more perfect than this? A shortbread-esque tart shell, filled with luxurious pastry cream, topped with juicy strawberries. I actually made a mini-version of this in my 6″ springform pan, and it was absolutely amazing. It also reminded me that pastry cream is really just vanilla pudding, and it was not as complicated as I remember making in the past. I see éclairs in my future!

Simple Fruit Tart

Source: Sweet Enough (or watch Alison make it in this video!)

Yield: This makes a 9″ tart (I halved all the below to make a mini tart in a 6″ springform pan)

Ingredients

Crust

  • 1 1/3 cups (200g) flour
  • 2/3 cup (80g) powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tsp (6g) kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted and cooled slightly

Pastry Cream

  • 1 cup sugar, divided
  • 8 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 4 tbsp butter

+ fresh fruit for topping

Directions

  1. For the crust, preheat the oven to 350 and get out a 9″ tart pan or springform pan.
  2. Add the flour, sugar and salt to a medium bowl and stir/whisk to combine. Add the melted butter and stir until it comes together into a dough.
  3. Press the dough evenly across the bottom of the pan, and up the sides by about an inch. Dock all over with a fork. Bake for about 18-20 minutes until starting to turn golden brown. Let cool completely (you can also make this a couple of days in advance and store it wrapped at room temperature).
  4. For pastry cream, whisk 1/2 cup sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch, vanilla bean paste/extract and salt together in a medium bowl.
  5. Add the milk and 1/2 cup sugar to a medium pot. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then remove from heat (don’t let it boil).
  6. Slowly pour 1 cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Repeat until all of the milk has been added.
  7. Return all of the mixture to the pot and place over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it thickens, which happens very quickly, so don’t walk away. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter.
  8. Spoon the pudding into a clean bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the pastry cream so it doesn’t form a “skin”. Put it in the fridge to cool completely.
  9. To assemble, whisk the cooled pastry cream until smooth, add it to the tart shell, and spread into an even layer. Top with whatever fresh fruit you like, and chill for an hour before slicing.