May 12, 2022, Updated May 12, 2023 If you love my easy strawberry cobbler recipe, you will definitely adore this.
What is a strawberry tart made of?
A classic strawberry tart is usually made with a sweetened pastry dough (a.k.a. pate sucree), first blind baked and then filled with pastry cream and chilled to set before topping with fresh berries. My super easy strawberry tart recipe uses puff pastry for simplicity, and an almond cream that is a 2-minute food processor/blender task.
Why I love this recipe:
Crust: simple frozen puff pastry, no need to blind bake, fuss with pie weights, or own a tart pan with a removable bottom. The freeform nature we call “rustic” is intended to be imperfect.
Filling: instead of making a delicate milk-and-egg yolk custard, we’re making an easy almond cream frangipane (franjy-panee). The flavour nods to the classic berries-and-cream vibe with butter, egg and vanilla, but uses almonds instead of dairy. No need to worry about the egg mixture curdling in hot milk, or chilling the tart to set before serving).
Strawberries: a traditional strawberry tart piles fresh strawberries on top, with a glaze to hold everything in place. In this recipe, we slice the berries and cook them on top of the almond cream. The strawberries’ sweetness and flavour concentrates in the oven, and you don’t need to rely so heavily on having perfect berries (although I definitely lucked out this time — look at how red they were all the way through!).
Bottom line: this strawberry tart looks fancy, sounds fancy, and tastes fancy but is deceptively simple with far fewer steps than the traditional version and requires no chill time before serving. Dessert faster? Yes please.
How long will a strawberry tart last in the fridge?
This tart is truly best served on the day it’s made, before the strawberries have time to soften, but leftovers are perfectly fine for about 3 days in the fridge wrapped in plastic wrap. Note that pie crusts and tart shells get harder after refrigerating them, and the strawberry juices will make the frangipane get soggy with time (both issues are the same for traditional strawberry tarts). Because it comes together quickly and requires no time to set before serving, I recommend making it as close as possible to the time you want to enjoy it.
How to make this recipe:
To make the frangipane mixture, simply combine all ingredients in a small food processor or blender to puree. If you don’t own either, substitute the same quantity (by weight) of almond butter and whisk it together by hand in a medium bowl. To assemble the strawberry tart, you need a rolling pin, a baking sheet and parchment paper. If your puff pastry comes with two discs, save one for another purpose. Roll thawed dough into a rough circle, spread the almond cream in the middle, top with strawberries and fold the dough edges over the filling. See the recipe below for step-by-step directions with photos.
Other Strawberry Tart recipes you’ll love:
If you’d prefer a fresh strawberry tart recipe with a cream cheese kind of filling, I have a delicious Strawberry-Lemon Mascarpone Tart with your name on it. I’ve also got a gorgeous Strawberry White Chocolate Tart recipe. It also sounds fancy, but the mousse filling only has two ingredients: cooled, melted white chocolate and whipped cream. And if you want a totally no-bake recipe that’s as easy as … well, easier than pie, you can’t miss my Strawberry Icebox Cake. It takes just 5 ingredients and 15 minutes, come on.
