The soft tart with custard and strawberries is a simple dessert to prepare with extraordinary taste. The combination of custard with strawberries, in my opinion, is perfect and pairs divinely with the soft and aromatic base.
For the base, I used the recipe formy soft tart made with a “smart mold“, filled it withcustard and lots of fresh strawberries. If you don’t want to use gelatin to glaze them, cut the strawberries half an hour before serving, decorate the cake and keep it in the fridge until the last minute.
I also made a syrup by macerating a small portion of strawberries with sugar and lemon, then distributed them in the center of the cake before dressing it with custard and finishing with thinly sliced strawberries.
To get ahead, you can prepare the soft tart and the cream in advance and assemble the cake two hours before lunch or dinner.
If you love strawberries, try also:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 50 Minutes
- Portions: 10 People
- Cooking methods: Stove, Electric Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
- Energy 189.42 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 29.95 (g) of which sugars 18.87 (g)
- Proteins 3.88 (g)
- Fat 6.88 (g) of which saturated 1.99 (g)of which unsaturated 4.58 (g)
- Fibers 1.28 (g)
- Sodium 12.26 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup peanut oil (or 5 tbsps of softened butter)
- 3 1/2 tbsp milk
- 2 eggs (medium)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon zest (grated)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 5 tbsp egg yolks
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp rice starch
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1/3 pod vanilla
- lemon zest (zest of half a lemon is sufficient)
- 7 oz strawberries (fresh)
- Half lemon
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 lb 1 oz oz strawberries (fresh)
Tools
- 2 Bowls
- 1 Scale
- 1 Electric whisk
- 1 Cake pan for soft tart or smart mold of 11 inches
- 1 Small bowl
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Hand whisk
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Baking dish rectangular
- Plastic wrap
Procedure
Sift the flour with the baking powder.
Pour the eggs into the bowl, add the sugar and whip them with the electric whisk until they are fluffy and frothy.Add half of the flour while continuing to whip the mixture with the whisk then add the oil.
Incorporate the remaining flour and finally add the milk, lemon zest, and vanilla.
Pour the mixture into the greased and floured soft tart mold.
Bake the dessert in a preheated static oven at 338°F for about 20 minutes (baking time depends on your oven’s power).
Do the toothpick test to check the baking, if necessary extend it by a few minutes.
The soft tart is ready, remove it from the oven, wait a few minutes, and turn it upside down on a baking rack. Let it cool completely.
Open the vanilla pod, extract the seeds and put them in the saucepan with the milk, also add the pod and the pieces of zest from half a lemon.
Bring the milk to boil, turn off the heat and let it cool slightly.
Shell the eggs, place the yolks in a bowl, add the sugar and mix.
Incorporate the corn starch, rice starch, mixing with a whisk to blend the mixture well.Remove the vanilla pod and lemon zest from the milk, pour it over the eggs in a thin stream, continuing to mix with the whisk.
Transfer the mixture to the saucepan, place it on the heat and thicken the cream for a few minutes, stirring continuously with the whisk (for perfect cooking just reach 184°F).
Pour the cream into the baking dish, cover it with plastic wrap in contact and place it in the fridge to cool for 2 hours.
The custard is ready, before using it, mix it with a whisk to make it shiny and silky.
Wash 7 oz of strawberries, dry them with paper towels, and remove the green parts.
Cut them into 1/2 inch pieces, place them in a bowl, add the juice of half a lemon, and the sugar (adjust the sugar based on the sweetness of the strawberries, if they are very sour, add more), mix well and let it sit for 1 hour, a syrup will form which we will use as a syrup.
Place the soft tart on a dessert plate, use a kitchen brush to wet the center of the tart with the strawberry juice and add the diced strawberries.
Spread the custard over the strawberries and level it with the back of a spoon.
Place it in the fridge while you prepare the strawberries.
Wash 1 lb 1 oz of strawberries, pat them dry with the paper towels, and remove the green parts.
Slice them thinly, about 1/4 inch, and arrange them in a radial pattern on the cake’s surface, starting from the outside and creating many overlapping layers.
The soft tart with custard and strawberries is ready. Let the cake rest in the fridge for 1 hour before serving.
If you don’t serve it within a few hours, you must absolutely cover the fruit with gelatin.
Advice
Storage
To store the soft tart with custard and strawberries for 2/3 days, you will need to keep it in the fridge and cover the fruit with gelatin, otherwise you must consume it the same day.
