20 crunchy strawberry tarts

How to make a strawberry tart?

The classic strawberry tart

When you go to your favorite pastry chef or even your competitor to find a strawberry tart, often the products are similar. Indeed, in classic pastry, the strawberry tart recipe seems immutable: sweet shortcrust pastry, vanilla custard, and a multitude of fresh strawberries on top and “en avant Guingamp”. If at home, we want to achieve the pastry look, don't forget to brush our strawberries with a little heated jam to bring out all their “glow”. The strawberries are the stars of this dessert, so they deserve to shine brightly!

Baked strawberry pie

If, in the standard version, the fruits are displayed in the rawest way possible, you can also choose to cook the strawberries. In this case, some clarifications are necessary. Cooked strawberries don't look at all like raw strawberries – we know you know, but it's always worth repeating – and this will have several effects on the final look of the dessert. When cooking, the strawberry loses a lot of volume. In fact it gets rid of its water, which can have the effect of making the dough soggy, but also of obtaining a dessert low in fruit if you haven't had a generous enough hand. To keep in mind: when cooking strawberries, it is better to use a lot.

Also, when cooking, the strawberry loses some of its shine and alluring redness. In itself, obviously nothing serious – the taste doesn't change – but it's better to know that rather than being disappointed when you open the oven.

No-bake strawberry pie

You can also choose to prepare a completely raw strawberry tart using a base composed of powdered oilseeds, dates, and agave syrup. You can also opt for a dough similar to that of a cheesecake by mixing biscuits (Petit Beurre, speculoos, Digestive, etc.) with melted butter, before letting everything firm up in the fridge for a few minutes.

Which strawberry for which season?

Depending on the month of the year, the availability of strawberries changes. We deliberately skip the strawberries reddened in the greenhouse, without taste, available in December which squeezes our hearts as much as our pupils…

From March onwards, the first strawberries appear. First the Gariguette (March to June), the Ciflorette (March to July), the Clery (March to June), the Darselect (April to June then October until the beginning of November), the Charlotte (April until the beginning November), or the mara des bois (May to October). Obviously, these periods can change slightly from year to year depending on the weather, if winter extends, or if, on the contrary, spring gets ahead.

Another magnificent product for a strawberry tart: wild strawberries. With its very subtle notes, wild strawberries are a little gem which unfortunately comes at a much higher cost than its plumper counterparts. The good idea? Play with individual tartlets on which a few wild strawberries will liven up the dessert alternating with standard strawberries. Also, the wild strawberry is such a fine and expensive fruit that it would be a shame to cook it. We prefer it raw in the finish, that's where it plays its best part.

Here are 20 suggestions, from the most classic to the most original, to rediscover this dessert that never sees time passing.