I am a baker of cakes, mostly, and I’ve spent so many years perfecting my recipes that I won’t give them away. But I will share my easy strawberry/raspberry tart recipe. Making a good pastry cream is an essential skill.
CRUST
You can make a pastry crust, but I find that all that work makes a crust that’s only marginally better than a good frozen one. So I generally do that. You can drizzle a little melted chocolate in the bottom of the pastry shell after baking it if that’s your jam.
Bake your pastry shell first and cool it.
PASTRY CREAM
2 tbsp flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
4 egg yolks
2 cups milk (whole milk, y’all)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp butter (chopped in little pieces)
Put the dry ingredients in a nonstick pan (I use a frying pan, not a saucepan) and whisk them together.
In a bowl, whisk the yolks into the milk VERY WELL. Then pour that into the pan and make sure all the dry ingredients are well integrated into the milk/yolk mixture.
Put the pan on the stove at medium heat and stir occasionally (I use a wooden spoon) for about 5 minutes, then stir constantly, scraping the bottom of the pan as you stir. It will start to thicken, and it will look like curds are forming, but keep stirring and scraping and it will all thicken up and become smooth. Do NOT leave it alone at all after the first 5 minutes of cook time. If you still see lumps after it has thickened, break them up with a whisk.
Once the cream has thickened and starts bubbling, boil for 1 minute, stirring and scraping all the while. Then take it off the stove. You’ll know it’s done if you drag the edge of the spoon through it and the line stays.
Now add the vanilla and the butter and stir until the butter is all melted and the vanilla is all integrated. You can add a little strawberry liqueur or some rum here if you want zip, but I generally don’t. You can also add some melted semisweet chocolate to it if you want it chocolatey.
Pour the cream into your pre-baked and cooled pastry shell and put it in the fridge to set.
**Edit: note, if you like a really thick amount of cream, you can use most of it in one pie shell, but I like a thinner layer and usually make 2 tarts from one batch of cream. Which is good, because you’ll need 2.
TOPPING
Put fresh strawberries or raspberries (or both, or some other berry if you like) on the cooled cream.
I think red currant jelly is the best thing to pour over either berry. Melt about 1/2 cup of jelly, add 1 and 1/2 tsp gelatin, stir over medium heat until the gelatin is dissolved. Spoon it over the berries.
Let the tart set in the fridge for at least an hour or two, then snarf it down.