La Palette’s Strawberry Tart

This weeks TWD challenge was a Strawberry Tart. Perfect for the season. It's summer and you don't necessarily want to be having any heavily sugared desserts. So this was just really perfect.

The recipe is very easy. Not hard at all. I do however have to say that I didn't really like the crust. It's was a bit to flaky like for me. I didn't like it at all. I think next time I will use nuts into the dough. This one just didn't have me at all. It was still good, I just would had used a different tart crust. Like, the one I make for my White Chocolate Blueberry Tart. That crust was amazing!! I think I'll do that next time.

Recipe

For the Filling

Strawberry Jam (I used blueberry to give it a twist)
1 pint strawberries
Sugar (optional)
Whipped Cream (optional)


For the Tart Dough

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick plus 1 tbsp. (9 tbsp.)cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk


1. For the dough, Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition.

2. When the egg is in, process in long pulses—about 10 seconds each—until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change—heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

3. To press the dough into the pan, Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don't be too heavy-handed—press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

4. To partially or fully bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

5. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. For a partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keep it in its pan).

6. To fully bake the crust, Bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

7. To patch a partially or fully baked crust, if necessary: If there are any cracks in the baked crust, patch them with some of the reserved raw dough as soon as you remove the foil. Slice off a thin piece of the dough, place it over the crack, moisten the edges and very gently smooth the edges into the baked crust. If the tart will not be baked again with its filling, bake for another 2 minutes or so, just to take the rawness off the patch.

8. Once crust has completely cooled, spread jam on crust. Add strawberries, chopped roughly, on top of the crust. Serve with whipped cream is desired. You can add sugar too to lightly sweeten it.