Strawberry Tart

This past weekend, the locals of southern Louisiana gathered to celebrate one of the state’s most popular springtime crops–Strawberries.  

Self-proclaimed as the “Strawberry Capital of the World,” Ponchatoula, LA, is a favorite for locals looking to ship farm fresh berries from southern Louisiana to their homes.

With my favorite seasonal festival underway and the last days of Spring Break right before my doctoral exams, a glamorous dessert was in order.  Made from ruby red Ponchatoula strawberries bedded on a light amandine tart crust, this dessert is strikingly similar to my French Berry Tart but without the custard.

Here, I’ve swapped custard for a simple homemade gelatin mixture produced with boiling water and strawberry preserves.Although my friend Peter inspired this dish with memories of German gelatin-filled strawberry tarts, this tart’s local berries, easy construction, and French amandine crust are entirely Louisiana.

Strawberry Tart

Ingredients:

—Almond Crust—

* 1/4 Cup Almond Meal (1/2 Cup Sliced Almonds & 1 Tablespoon Confectioner’s Sugar Finely Ground in a Coffee Grinder or similar mill)

* 2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

* 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) Unsalted Butter

* 2/3 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar

* 1 Large Egg

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

—Filling—

* 1 lb. fresh strawberries, stemmed and halved

* 1 tablespoon sugar

* 9 tablespoons red jelly or jam

* 4 tablespoons water

1.) Wash strawberries, stem, halve, and toss in a bowl with sugar.  Cover and allow to macerate for at least 1 hour.

2.) Prepare the Pastry: in a coffee grinder, add  confectioner’s sugar with sliced almonds.  Grind until a fine powder develops.  Add almond meal to all purpose flour and whisk to combine in a separate bowl.  In a standing mixer (I use my Kitchenaid), combine butter, sugar, egg, salt, and vanilla until well blended.  Slowly sift in flour and almond meal to this wet mixture.  Mix all ingredients until fully combined and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before rolling out.

3.) Once ready to cook the pastry, preheat oven to 350F and roll dough out onto a well-floured surface.  The dough will be hard and cold, so it may take several minutes for you to get it to do as you want during this step.  However, this is a good sign–all good pastries are hard to work with at first and persistence always yields to a great crust.

4.) Roll out dough to the size of your 8- or 10-inch tart pan and line tart pan with dough.  Press dough into the pan’s edges cutting off excess dough as necessary and puncturing the pastry throughout with a fork.  Line pie dough with parchment paper or aluminum foil and use either ceramic oven-safe weights or dry bean weights.

5.) Bake pie crust for 25 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove crust from oven and cool completely.  Turn off stove.

6.) When ready to eat, bring water and red preserves to a simmer over low-medium heat stirring frequently until a thick mixture forms.  Brush half of the preserves over the cooked tart shell and fill with macerated strawberries.  Brush strawberries with remaining half of preservatives and serve warm or cold.  Makes 8-10 servings.

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This recipe was re-published for my “Fresh Ideas” Column for Louisiana’s state newspaper, The Advocate, on Thursday, May 10th, 2012.  You can read the reprint here.

–Helana Brigman