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This Strawberry French Tart is a classic French tart recipe, made with crème patissière and topped with strawberries. This is such a delicious and fancy dessert that everyone will love, including your picky kids.
Strawberry French Tart is one of my most favorite French dessert. I absolutely love it, with any fruit topping. It looks gorgeous and it’s super easy! Once you make it once you will feel like it’s such a breeze and it will help you plan better the next time because you know what to expect!
If you’re looking for other delicious desserts why not also try Strawberry Crisp and my Raspberry Puff Pastry Tart!
Why you’ll love this Strawberry French Tart
- A gorgeous strawberry glaze. This delicious French Tart has the most glorious glossy glaze! Made from apricot jam and strawberry jello – gorgeous and delicious!
- A buttery crust. The golden base is melt in the mouth good, made with butter and vanilla extract.
- An easy French Tart. This delicious strawberry tart looks amazing, but it’s a breeze to whip up.
Ingredients you’ll need
- Crust Base – flour, butter, confectioner sugar, egg, vanilla
- Crème Patissière – milk, corn starch, sugar, vanilla stem, egg yolks, butter
- Strawberry Glaze – apricot jam, strawberry jello, water
- Whip Cream – whipping cream, confectioner sugar
How to make this Strawberry French Tart
- Make your crème patissière – bring the milk and vanilla beans to a boil. Add in the egg yolks, corn starch and sugar mixture. Then sieve the whole mixture. Continue to cook until the mixture thickens then add the butter. Allow to cool and place in the fridge.
Make the whipped cream – Whip the heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar, then place in the fridge to cool. - Make the crust – in a mixing bowl, blend together your crust ingredients. Transfer to a ziplock bag and allow to chill for 30 mins. Then bake in the oven for 15 mins.
- Prep your strawberries and glaze – slice your strawberries and mix your glaze ingredients together.
- Assemble the French Tart – spread your crème patissière whip cream mixture on the crust. Top with strawberries and brush with glaze. Place in the fridge and allow to cool for another hour.
- Prep your strawberries and glaze – slice your strawberries and mix your glaze ingredients together.
Assemble the French Tart – spread your crème patissière whip cream mixture on the crust. Top with strawberries and brush with glaze. Place in the fridge and allow to cool for another hour. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe notes and tips
- Use a preheated oven.
- You can use a store-bought pie crust for convenience, however, the homemade crust is super easy and buttery.
- Don’t skip the chilling time in the fridge.
- Work quickly – avoid the crust from getting to warm or it will become sticky
- Ideally use a tart pan with a removable bottom, which will support the crust when lifting your tart.
- Ideally choose seasonal, ripe strawberries that are in-season.
- Organize your strawberry slices into sizes, this makes for a better presentation. You can start by placing the small strawberry halves in the middle of the tart and use bigger strawberry halves for the outer circle! Not essential but looks lovely!
- Whip up some whip heavy whipping cream and add it in after it cools, to make it a little fluffier and lighter.
- Garnish with some sprigs of fresh mint or basil.
FAQ’s
Can I make this Strawberry French Tart ahead of time?
To make the process easier, prepare the crème patissière the day before. It just cuts out so much time for the day you are planning to serve it. You can prepare the dough a day before and take it out about 15 minutes before you bake it to allow the dough to soften up for easier use. Prepare the glaze ahead of time and store it in an air tight container in the fridge until the next day. The tart is best served the first 2 days, after that it will get soft and soggy.
So the first thing I always do when I make this Strawberry French Tart is prepare the crème patissiere first because it needs to get cool before you use it for the tart. The ingredients are just eggs yolk, milk, corn starch, vanilla beans, sugar and butter for the crème base. What I also do is whip up some whip heavy whipping cream and add it in after it cool to make it a little fluffier and lighter.
Can I make mini French Tarts?
If you are baking for a crowd, it’s easier to just do a big tart like this one. You know you wont have any left over. If you want to prepare them for your family and can only eat half of it, what I usually do is prepare all the ingredients ahead and bake half the tart base in mini molds, and save the other half and bake a new bath the next day. The base and the crème will last for up to 3 days in the fridge so you can always bake and enjoy a new fresh batch daily.
Can I use other fruit toppins?
Absolutely, you can certainly try different fruit toppings. If you use anything other than strawberries, you can make the glaze with just apricot jam, exclude the strawberry Jello mix, and have a clear glaze for glazing other types of fruits.
Other delicious desserts
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Strawberry French Tart
Ingredients
CRUST BASE:
- 2 1/2 cups flour, (sifted)
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup confectioner sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsps. vanilla extract
CRÉME PATISSIÉRE:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1/3 cup corn starch
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 inch vanilla stem, cut and scraped
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp. butter
STRAWBERRY GLAZE:
- 1/3 cup apricot jam, without chunks
- 2 tbsps. strawberry Jello
- 3 tbsps. water
WHIP CREAM:
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup confectioner sugar
Instructions
- To prepare the crème patissière, bring the milk and vanilla beans (cut 2 inch stem, open up and scrape out the vanilla beans, place stems in pot) to a boiling point.
- While the milk is boiling, whisk the egg yolks, corn starch and sugar in another bowl. Right when you see the milk is just starting to boil, remove from the heat and pour slowly into the egg mixture while whisking at the same time. Place a fine sieve over the pot and pour back the milk mixture through the sieve to filter out the vanilla stems.
- Continue cooking the custard cream until you obtain a thick bubbly texture. Remove from the heat, add 1 tbsp. of butter, whisk a few times before pouring into a glass/pyrex bowl and let it cool on room temperature for about 3o minutes. Cool in the fridge for another 45-1 hr. until the custard it completely cold. Also at this point, whip up the 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to make your whip cream and then place in the fridge to cool.
- I a mixing bowl, blend together the flour, butter, confectioner sugar, egg yolk and vanilla extract and allow the dough to collects itself together. Transfer the dough into a zip lock bag or wrap with clear plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the fridge.
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove from the fridge and then spread the dough evenly onto a tart pan’s base and sides (a pan that has a release plate) and prick through the dough with a fork. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes of until you start seeing a golden pink colored crust. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
- Prepare your sliced strawberries and strawberry glaze (in the recipe card below). The cool time for the cream should be done by now. Return the crème patissière mixture to the cake stand mixer and lightly whip it with the whipping cream. Remove and spread as much as you want onto the tart (about 1/2 thick), you will have leftover cream. Top the cream with sliced strawberries and brush the strawberries with the glaze. Place in the fridge and allow to cool for another hour before serving.
Notes
- Use a preheated oven.
- You can use a store-bought pie crust for convenience, however, the homemade crust is super easy and buttery.
- Don’t skip the chilling time in the fridge.
- Work quickly – avoid the crust from getting to warm or it will become sticky
- Ideally use a tart pan with a removable bottom, which will support the crust when lifting your tart.
- Ideally choose seasonal, ripe strawberries that are in-season.
- Organize your strawberry slices into sizes, this makes for a better presentation. You can start by placing the small strawberry halves in the middle of the tart and use bigger strawberry halves for the outer circle! Not essential but looks lovely!
- Whip up some whip heavy whipping cream and add it in after it cools, to make it a little fluffier and lighter.
- Garnish with some sprigs of fresh mint or basil.
can i freeze this when made
Unfortunately not.