Creme fraiche strawberry tarts

I'm making tarts from three pints of strawberries I had purchased two Fridays ago at the Hermosa Beach farmers market. The strawberries, while extremely sweet that Friday, somehow were not so sweet when we got home. Instead of trying to eat them as is, I decided to make tarts. I asked Amanda, my professional baker friend, for recipes. One recipe was a variation on her creme fraiche custard apple tart. Amanda had given a very basic recipe that included only the ingredients for the filling: creme fraiche, whole cream, vanilla bean, eggs and egg yolks. She even left out the sugar! Nervous!

Instead of calling her up, I decided to figure out the crust for myself. I first made a pate brisee crust but then realized that it would be too flaky for a tart - especially one that was as wobbly as a custard tart. So I wrapped the dough up in plastic wrap and tossed it in the freezer.

If my memory served me correctly, Amanda's tart crust was cookie like and not flaky. Possibly pate sucree. Pate sucree has higher fat content, and it has more of a cookie texture so it holds up easier. The only thing is that it's harder to work with because when it's not cold it sticks to everything.


The first time I made the tarts, they shrunk considerably after baking them blind.. who knew you were supposed to have the pastry slightly higher? I also found out that pre freezing the tart shells also helps with shrinkage. I'm testing this right now with both increased shell height and pre-freezing!



The custard had turned out wonderfully from the first baking but the pre shrinking really put me off. Here's hoping that things will turn out better this time!

* I baked the tart shells blind at 375F
* The custard portion was later added when the tart shells cooled.
* The custard was baked at 350F, for approx 15 mins until the custard was set.
* The strawberries were roasted first in the toaster oven to drive off the juice to not create wet spots in the custard (thanks to Amanda for the tip).
* I spooned the strawberries into the blind baked tart shells and then added the custard.
* All ingredients were all room temperature before spooning into tart shells.
* I poked the frozen tart shells with a fork
* The pate sucree recipe used was some wolfgang puck recipe I found online. Would be interested in trying something else that used the whole egg.