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British summertime is always calling out for strawberries and cream, and as it's been a while since I made anything pastry related I thought a nice tart filled with strawberry and lemon curd would hit the spot. Making your own curd can be a little bit of an intimidating prospect but it's surprisingly straight forward, as you'll find out later on
The Curd
Before creating this recipe I'd never made curd before, but strawberry curd doesn't seem to exist in any shop so I decided now was the time. The premise is fairly simple, cooking your strawberries till they're soft and then incorporating sugar and egg yolks, but let's learn a little more about the process.
We heat our strawberries separately from everything else to ensure we don't accidentally scramble our egg yolks. We combine our other ingredients such as lemon juice and sugar to our egg yolks and mix them till smooth before we add it to the strawberries to prevent clumping. When everything is combined and we cook the mixture again, we're removing some moisture from it causing it to thicken.
After cooking our curd chills and sets, it's important to cover the curd effectively as it can develop a skin if not done correctly. I cover mine with cling film, making sure the cling film is actually touching the top of the curd.
The Pastry
Confession, I used pre-made pastry for these tarts (please don't judge me). Shortcrust pastry is remarkably easy to make, however, I had a block of pastry I brought a while back that I hadn't used so I thought it was a good time. I used a 500g block of pastry which made 8 tarts. If you're making your own from scratch, I'd recommend doing enough to make one regular size pie, which should then make 6-8 little tarts.
Method:
Roll out your shortcrust pastry until it's around 1/4 inch thick and line your tart tins
Brush your pastry either with an egg wash or a little bit of milk and place in the oven to cook for 45 minutes at 160c Fan
Cut up your strawberries into quarters and remove their tops
Cook them over a low heat in a covered saucepan for around 10 minutes until they're soft and liquidy. Stir occasionally to ensure they don't stick to the bottom and burn
In a bowl, whisk together your egg yolks and sugar until completely combined.
Add your cornflour and whisk, then add your lemon juice and whisk again until the mixture is completely smooth
Remove your strawberries from the heat and add them to your mixture in increments, stirring as you pour them in.
Once totally combined, place your mixture back into the saucepan and cook on a medium heat for around 5-7 minutes stirring constantly
Up the heat until the mixture is boiling and cook for a further 2 minutes whilst still stirring. It should have thickened at this point
Remove your curd from the heat and place in a pot or jar.
Cover your curd with clingfilm making sure the clingfilm touches the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming.
Leave to cool in the fridge and when ready, remove your pastry from the oven and leave these to cool as well.
Whip up your double cream using an electric whisk and set aside
Remove your curd from the fridge and place into a piping bag
Pipe your curd onto your tarts
Place your whipped cream into a piping bag and pipe this on top of the curd. I did a flower pattern but anything works, get creative!
Place a strawberry on top of the tarts and store in the fridge
As an optional extra, you can use your leftover egg whites and some sugar to make some meringue that you can crush up and sprinkle over the top!
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