Ingredients

The following ingredients have 4 Servings
  • 225g plain flour
  • 110g butter
  • 80g sugar
  • 1 large egg, whisked

Instruction

  • For the pastry, rub the butter and the flour together by hand, using your finger tips. The mix should look like large bread crumbs. Add the whole whisked egg and the sugar. Bring all the ingredients together to form a ball of pastry. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 20 minutes
  • For the crème patisserie, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until pale and light. Fold in the corn flour and flour. Bring the milk to the boil in a small saucepan and then whisk it gradually into the egg mixture Pour the mixture into a clean pan and bring it slowly to the boil until it thickens. Simmer for a minute and then take the pan off the heat. Pass through a sift. Split vanilla pod in half length ways, scrape out the seeds and add to the mixture. Cover with cling film and allow to cool. Then place in a piping bag.
  • Pre-heat oven to 170<span class="st">&deg;</span>C/150<span class="st">&deg;</span>C fan/325<span class="st">&deg;</span>F/Gas Mark 3.
  • Roll out pastry to about 4mm thick. Carefully line the four tartlet tins. Leaving an over hang of pastry. Place on a baking tray. Chill for twenty minutes. Then blind bake pastry for ten minutes.
  • Turn down oven to 160<span class="st">&deg;</span>C/140<span class="st">&deg;</span>C fan/300<span class="st">&deg;</span>F/Gas Mark 2. Remove baking beans and prick pastry with a fork and cook for a further ten minutes. Egg wash tarts and cook for a further five minutes. Leave the pastry in the tins and allow to cool. With a small edged serrated knife, trim the excess pastry from the tins. Being very delicate. Remove pastry cases from tartlet tins.
  • Pipe in the vanilla cr&egrave;me patisserie. Hull three strawberries slice them three quarters the way down, so the slices are still connected. Fan out strawberries, arrange on top of the cr&egrave;me patisserie. Dust with icing sugar.