The Queen of Hearts would be blown away by these berry beautiful strawberry tarts from the award-winning espresso bar Tea Hee
1. To make the pastry, place the flour, salt, sugar and butter (cubed) in a food processor and blitz until you have a fine breadcrumb texture. Working with your hands, add the beaten egg and work the mixture until it starts coming into a ball. If you feel the mix needs more liquid add the water a little at a time, taking care not to let the dough get too wet.
2. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for at least half an hour before rolling.
3. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Turn out the pastry onto a floured surface and roll out a piece large enough to line either a single 23cm fluted flan ring or six 6cm flan rings, if you prefer to make individual tarts. Line the flan rings, taking care not to stretch the pastry as it goes in. Let the cases rest in the fridge for a further half hour before lining with baking parchment and baking beans.
4. Bake for around 15 minutes. Remove the baking parchment and beans and return the cases to the oven, reducing the temperature to 160°C, for a further 15 minutes. As the pastry browns brush with the beaten egg yolk to glaze and seal the cases, bake for a couple of minutes then remove from the oven and allow to cool.
5. For the crème patissiere, pour the milk into a heavy bottomed sauce pan and add the vanilla pod slit down its length. Bring this to a gentle boil over a low heat, turn the heat off and allow the flavour to infuse for 15 minutes.
6. In a separate bowl whisk together the egg yolks and caster sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the sieved flour and mix well ensuring no lumps of flour have formed. Carefully lift the vanilla pod out of the milk and scrape the seeds out, return the seeds to the liquid and discard the pod. Pour the milk into the egg yolk mixture and whisk well, return to the pan and heat very gently until the custard thickens.
7. Remove from the heat. Pour the mixture into a clean bowl, cover with cling film and leave to cool.
8. When the crème has cooled, fold in the whipped cream. Spread the custard into the pastry cases and arrange halved strawberries over the top. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with fresh mint leaves.
©Tea Hee
Photography Copyright © 2009 Victoria Harley
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