Strawberry Tart

Desserts

A crisp, buttery pâte sablée shell filled with vanilla-scented diplomat cream and topped with rows of perfectly ripe strawberries. The cream is light and mousse-like, the pastry crumbles cleanly with each bite, and the strawberries taste like the sweet summer. Make this when strawberries are at their peak and you want to create something that looks as stunning as it tastes.

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Prep Time 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 5 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Servings 8

Ingredients 

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For the Pâte Sablée

• 250 gr plain flour
• 125 gr unsalted butter cold and cubed
• 100 gr icing sugar
• 2 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
• pinch salt

For the Crème Diplomate

• 500 ml whole milk
• 1 vanilla pod or 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 egg yolks
• 125 gr caster sugar
• 40 gr corn starch
• 1 tsp agar agar powder
• 300 ml Double cream well chilled

For the Topping

• 600 gr strawberries small to medium, perfectly ripe

Equipment

fluted flan dish

food processor or bowl and pastry cutter

rolling pin

baking beans or rice

saucepan

whisk

sieve

mixing bowl

electric mixer

spatula

Instructions

1. Make the pâte sablée

• Pulse the flour, icing sugar, and salt in a food processor. Add the cold butter cubes and pulse until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, about 10-15 short pulses. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, then pulse just until the dough starts to clump together. Don't overwork it.

  Turn the dough out onto your work surface and bring it together gently with your hands. Shape it into a disc about 2cm thick, wrap in cling film, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This rest is crucial, it prevents shrinking and gives you a properly sandy, crumbly texture.

2. Blind bake the tart shell

• Roll out the chilled pastry between two sheets of baking paper until it's about 3mm thick and roughly 30cm in diameter. Remove the top sheet, then flip the pastry into your fluted flan dish. Press it gently into the corners and trim the excess. Prick the base all over with a fork.

  Chill the tart shell for another 30 minutes. This second chill prevents shrinking.

  Meanwhile, heat your oven to 180°C (160°C fan/350°F). Line the fluted flan dish with baking paper and fill with baking beans. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the paper and beans. Brush the base lightly with a beaten egg if you want an extra-crisp seal (optional), then return to the oven for another 10-12 minutes until golden and completely dry. Let it cool completely in the fluted flan dish.

3. Make the crème pâtissière

• To make a crème diplomate, you first need to make a crème pâtissière. Pour the milk into a medium saucepan, add the vanilla pod and seeds (or extract), and bring to just below boiling point. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until pale and thick, about 2 minutes of vigorous whisking. Add the cornflour and whisk until smooth.

  Remove the vanilla pod from the milk. Pour about a third of the hot milk onto the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Pour this back into the saucepan with the remaining milk and return to medium heat.

  Whisk constantly while the mixture thickens, this takes about 2-3 minutes. It'll go from liquid to thick custard quite suddenly. Keep whisking for another minute after it's thickened to cook out the cornflour.

  Sprinkle the agar agar powder over the hot custard and whisk vigorously for 1-2 minutes to ensure it's completely dissolved and incorporated. The agar agar will help stabilize the cream when you add the whipped cream later.

  Transfer to a clean bowl, press cling film directly onto the surface to prevent a skin, and let it cool to room temperature, about 1-2 hours. Do not refrigerate yet.

4. Make the crème diplomate

• Once the crème pâtissière is at room temperature, whisk it gently with a hand whisk to loosen it and make it smooth again.

  In a separate large bowl, whip the cold double cream to soft peaks, it should hold its shape but still be quite soft and billowy, not stiff.

  Gently fold the whipped cream into the crème pâtissière in three additions, using a rubber spatula and a light hand. The mixture should be light, airy, and mousse-like. This is crème diplomate, lighter than crème pâtissière, more stable than plain whipped cream, and the traditional filling for French fruit tarts.

  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to let the agar agar set the cream properly before assembling the tart.

5. Assemble the tart

• Spread the chilled crème diplomate into the cooled tart shell, smoothing it level with a palette knife or the back of a spoon. You want it about 1.5cm deep, enough to support the strawberries without overwhelming them.

  Hull the strawberries and cut larger ones in half lengthways. Arrange them over the cream. Pack them relatively tightly, you want a full carpet of berries, not sparse coverage.

  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to let everything set. Eat within 4-6 hours for the best texture, after that, the berries start releasing juice and the pastry softens.

Notes

• Pâte sablée means sandy dough, and that’s exactly what you’re after, a crumbly, short-textured pastry, not elastic or chewy. Cold butter and minimal handling are key. If you don’t have a food processor, rub the butter into the flour quickly with your fingertips, then add the wet ingredients.
• Crème diplomate is crème pâtissière lightened with whipped cream and stabilized with agar agar (or traditionally, gelatin). It’s lighter than straight pastry cream but more stable than plain whipped cream. The agar agar is essential, it prevents the cream from becoming soupy when you fold in the whipped cream and helps it hold its shape in the tart.
• Agar agar is a plant-based gelling agent derived from seaweed, making this recipe vegetarian-friendly. It sets at room temperature and creates a softer, more delicate set than gelatin. Make sure to whisk it into the hot custard vigorously so it dissolves completely, any lumps will create an unpleasant texture.
• You can make the pastry shell a day ahead and store it in an airtight container. The crème pâtissière can be made up to the point of adding whipped cream and stored in the fridge for 1 day. Fold in the whipped cream and assemble the tart on the day you’re serving it. Once assembled, eat within 4-6 hours.
• Strawberry selection: Small to medium berries work best, the giant ones look impressive but taste of water. French gariguette or mara des bois varieties are ideal if you can find them.
• Timing matters with this tart. Make it during peak strawberry season, May through July in most places, when berries are naturally sweet and fragrant. Avoid winter strawberries that taste like cardboard. The French wait all year for their gariguettes in May, and there’s a reason for that. If your strawberries don’t smell like anything, they won’t taste like anything either. Buy them from farmers’ markets when possible, and use them the day you buy them for the best flavor.

About this recipe

I’m sure you’ve seen those beautiful strawberry tarts in pâtisserie windows every summer. The golden pastry, the perfectly arranged strawberries sitting on top of that delightful cream. What if I told you that you can make that at home? I know, it’s a lot to take in. But you really can.

And yes, it’s a proper pastry so the calories are very real. But you’ll forget all about that once you bite into those fresh, juicy strawberries. And then you’ll go back for more. I confess we always do.

What makes a french strawberry tart recipe different

The foundation is pâte sablée, and it’s worth knowing what makes it different from other French pastry doughs. The word sablée means sandy, and that describes the texture perfectly. A high ratio of butter to flour, mixed until the dough looks like breadcrumbs before it comes together, gives you a pastry that shatters cleanly when you cut it and just dissolves on the tongue.

It’s different from pâte sucrée, which uses whole eggs and gives a firmer, more cookie-like result. And it’s completely different from pâte brisée, which is a savoury shortcrust with an entirely different purpose. The French are very particular about these distinctions. And the distinction really does matter here. Pâte sablée is rich enough to hold up to the cream filling without going soggy, but light enough not to compete with the fruit. The word appears in French recipe books from the 1600s, describing exactly this texture. Four centuries later it’s still the standard base for every fruit tart in every pâtisserie window across France.

The cream

The classic version uses crème diplomate, which is a lighter, more elegant version of crème pâtissière. It became the standard in French pastry through the early to mid 20th century. Essentially the basic is crème pâtissière which is the vanilla custard base of French pâtisserie, but it’s stabilised with gelatine and then folded through with whipped cream. The result is richer than whipped cream alone and considerably lighter than straight pastry cream. It holds its shape perfectly, slices cleanly, and tastes like something between a cloud and a custard. I know, it sounds too good to be true.

The name comes from the classic “Diplomate au Bavarois” (Diplomat pudding), a moulded dessert from the 19th century. French pâtissiers adopted the technique for fruit tarts because it sits in the shell without melting or collapsing, even on a warm summer afternoon.

The right dish for a summer fruit tart

A beautiful French strawberry tart should be made in a fluted tart dish. Did you know that the fluted edges aren’t just for decoration? They actually increase the surface area of the pastry rim, which helps it bake more evenly. And of course, it looks so very French, you just have to.

I love using my De Buyer fluted dish for this fruit tart. The stainless steel conducts heat directly and evenly, which is exactly what pâte sablée needs. It distributes the heat across the whole base and up the sides uniformly, so the pastry bakes to an even golden colour rather than darker at the edges and pale in the centre. And it releases cleanly once cooled, which gives you that clean, professional finish every time. De Buyer has been making professional French kitchen equipment since 1830, and for a French strawberry tart, you just have to use good looking and sturdy French baking tools, don’t you think?

Strawberries, season, and variations

This is a seasonal recipe and it’s only worth making when the strawberries are actually in season. In France, markets around Carpentras and the Vaucluse are famous for their early season berries, arriving in May with a flavour that supermarket strawberries rarely match. When they’re good, they need nothing else to perfect them. When they’re not quite there, no amount of cream or pastry will save them. So please, wait for the good ones.

And the good news is that the same recipe works all summer long with whatever fruit is best at the market. Raspberries, blueberries, figs in autumn. The pâte sablée and crème diplomate stay exactly the same. Only the fruit changes, which is the most French approach to seasonal cooking there is.

When to make this

This strawberry tart is an occasion tart. It’s baked for summer birthdays, garden lunches, and Sunday afternoons when there’s time to do things properly. The pastry needs to rest, the cream needs to set, and the strawberries need to be arranged rather than scattered, so do take your time. It’s not a difficult tart to make, but make sure you’re not rushing.