It strawberry season again and perfect to enjoy a glamorous French Strawberry tart...
I have always had problems making this delicious melt in the mouth pastry that is called pate sablee ( translated into sand pastry).. Think I have now perfected it and  will share it here.






Pate Sablee

150 g butter
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp icing sugar
Sift icing sugar
Mix at low speed and combine
1 egg yolk and 1 hard boiled egg yolk grated mix into batter
add 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup and 3/4 cake flour
Take out 2 tbsp flour and replace with 2 tbsp corn starch
Sift the flour 
1/4 tsp salt
Mix only until it is well blended
Then wrap dough into cling wrap and chill
Roll out dough with floured  rolling pin into 1/8 inch thickness  and larger than the  18 inch pastry tin you are going to use. You can trim the pastry using your rolling pin over the top of the tin. Make holes  in the pastry with a fork  and chill for about ½ hour.
Bake at 175 deg C for 20 minutes.

While your tart bottom is baking make the pastry cream:

Pastry cream

1 cup milk
Of this take out  2 tbsp  into another bowl
Add 1 grated orange skin
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornflour
3 egg yolks
When the milk comes to the boiling point very slowly add to the egg mixture and then back in to the cooking pot stirring very fast until the cream is thick.  
Immediately cover with cling wrap right on the pastry cream in order that  the  ugly skin does not form.

Assembling the Strawberry Tart  

Pastry must be cold before adding the pastry cream using a palette knife you spread the pastry cream evenly over the bottom.
Then add the fruit starting in the middle
It does not always have to be strawberries but different fruit and even mixed berries and peaches for example. In order for the fruit tart to look very glamorous boil up a bit of fruit jam and then push through a sieve to get the little bits out and make a smooth glaze. 
Paint the fruit with glaze

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