Vegan Strawberry Tart
I know, I know. It’s pumpkin and apple everything right now and here I am posting a vegan strawberry tart. Let’s just say it took me a while to get to writing it. Just a few weeks late, but better late than never I guess!
This strawberry tart is made using the vegan pâte sucrée from the previous post, some vegan crème pâtissiere and some fresh strawberries. That’s it! It’s light, the shortcrust pastry is buttery and crisp, the pastry cream is smooth and creamy, and the fresh strawberries are the cherry (strawberry) on top.
How to make a vegan strawberry tart
The pâte sucrée/shortcrust pastry
It all starts with the vegan pâte sucrée/shortcrust pastry since it has to chill in the fridge for at least one hour. It’s really simple to make and can be done by hand so no special equipment required! I outlined the method in detail in the recipe’s blog post so I’ll give the condensed version here.
Have your butter cold but workable so it can still be mixed with the rest of the ingredients. Work it alone first in a bowl with a wooden or metal spoon (to not break your silicone one like I did) until pliable. Then add in the sifted powdered sugar, almond powder and salt. Mix together just until smooth, you don’t want to cream them together and incorporate air.
Then add in the milk, cornstarch and (optional) vanilla or lemon zest. The mixture will split, that’s normal. Add in some of the flour to smooth it out. Then add the rest and stir until a dough forms. To avoid overmixing, go in with your hands to finish incorporating the flour. Once it’s a homogenous dough, wrap it up and refrigerate for at least one hour while you make the pastry cream, or up to a week.
The crème pâtissière/pastry cream
While that chills, you can make the pastry cream. It also has a full detailed blog post for it in case you need more information on the ingredients and how to make it. But basically the method is the same as making non-vegan custard. Although you could also make it in the microwave as I did for the blueberry custard bars, which is simply *magical*.
Weigh your milk in a saucepan with the vanilla and place it over medium heat. In a small bowl whisk the rest of the ingredients except the butter together. Add in a bit of the milk to form a smooth mixture with the dry ingredients then pour it all back into the saucepan. Bring to a boil and whisk constantly until it thickens. If you stop mixing just a few seconds you should see large bubbles slowly coming to the surface. That’s when it’s done.
Add in the butter and whisk until it’s all melted and well incoporated. Pour the pastry cream into a shallow dish (the thinner it’s spread the faster it’ll cool) and cover with plastic wrap (or plastic wrap alternative) directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Place it in the fridge while you roll out and bake the tart shell.
Rolling out, baking and assembling
Rolling out
Once your dough has sufficiently chilled, start pressing and rolling it out on a floured surface or between 2 pieces of parchment. I would recommend the parchment since it makes it easier to transfer to the fridge if it gets too soft. You could also just take pieces of dough and press them evenly into the pie pan to form the shell if you don’t want to mess with rolling out the dough.
Either way just make sure it’s between 3-6mm or 1/8-1/4 inch thick. A very thick tart shell will be hard to cut and eat, but a shell too thin will be fragile, hard to work with and will get soggy faster. The tart I made for the pictures has a crust that’s slightly too thick. So this is just your classic case of do as I say not as I do.
Baking
When your dough is all rolled out, transfer it to your pie pan and press it in, making sure to get it well in the corners. Chill it until it’s firm then trim off the excess at the top with a sharp paring knife and dock the bottom with a fork. I personally don’t bake my pâte sucrée with pie weights, if I see that the bottom is puffing I simply poke it with a fork or knife, flatten it with the back of a spoon and continue baking.
It’ll take about 25 minutes to bake and it should be a light golden brown all over. Let it cool completely before assembling the tart. You can also optionally go over the edges with a Microplane to smooth them out if you want to be extra fancy.
If you’re making the same size tart as I made (18cm/7inch) you’ll have a bit less than half the dough leftover which you can freeze for up to 2 months or keep in the fridge for a week. You can make another tart with it, some tartlets, or even some sugar cookies!
Assembling your vegan strawberry tart
Once the pastry cream has set and the tart shell has cooled, it’s time to assemble! Loosen the cream by breaking it up and mixing it in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Then fill your tart shell to the top and smooth the surface flush with the sides of the shell. You can also just pipe it in all the way to the top.
You should have just enough cream leftover to pipe a few decorative dots on top, if not you can just cover the entire surface with strawberries! I did a mix of both but either way will still be delicious.
Trim the leaves off your strawberries and use them whole, cut in half, quarters or even eighths to decorate your tart. You can put as many or as little as you want here, it’s completely up to you. If you’re thinking of storing the tart in the fridge before eating it, I would recommend covering the entire surface. That way the strawberries protect the crème pâtissière from crusting. I like to put the finished tart in the fridge for about an hour before cutting just to let the pastry cream set up a bit.
Storing and/or making the vegan strawberry tart ahead of time
Both the pâte sucrée and the pastry cream can be made ahead of time. The dough for the pâte sucrée can be made and refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for up to 2 months. You could also make and bake the tart shell and store it in an airtight container for up to a week to have it ready. And the pastry cream can be made and refrigerated for about 4 days.
The finished tart can be stored in the fridge for about 2 days. But granted, the crust might soften a bit. Although, I actually had some leftovers that I kept in the fridge for 2 days and the crust hadn’t softened too much. But as I said my crust was a bit too thick so your results might be different.
Regardless, if you’re going to store the finished tart, you can brush the inside of the baked tart shell with melted cocoa butter or chocolate of your choice to “insulate” against the moisture of the pastry cream. That will keep it crisp for longer. And, as mentioned, cover the entire surface of the cream with strawberries to prevent it from drying out in the fridge.
If you make this recipe please let me know in the comments! All feedback is very much appreciated and I would love to hear from you! You can also tag me on instagram @the.quaint.kitchen or use the hashtag #thequaintkitchen to share your creations!
Vegan Strawberry Tart
Ingredients
Pâte Sucrée/Shortcrust Pastry
- 145 g vegan butter, i use this one
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 115 g powdered sugar
- 40 g almond powder, or 20g all-purpose flour
- 20 g cornstarch
- 45 g plant based milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or paste or lemon zest, optional
- 250 g all-purpose flour
Crème Pâtissière/Pastry Cream
- 250 g soy or cashew milk
- ½ scraped vanilla bean, or ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 30 g white granulated sugar, if using unsweetened milk add 1 tsp more
- 25 g cornstarch
- ¼ tsp nutritional yeast
- pinch of turmeric, optional
- pinch of salt
- 60 g vegan butter
Other
- fresh strawberries
- melted cocoa butter or chocolate, optional
Instructions
Pâte Sucrée/Shortcrust Pastry
- In a large bowl, work the cold (but not rock hard) butter with a metal or wooden spoon just until pliable. Add in the salt and almond powder and sift in the powdered sugar. Stir until smooth but don’t cream them, the goal isn’t to incorporate air.
- Stir in the cornstarch, milk and the vanilla or lemon zest if using. The mixture will split, that’s normal. Add in 100g of the flour to smooth it out.
- Add in the rest of the flour and mix just until a dough starts to form, then go in with your hands to finish incorporating it. Once you get a smooth dough, stop mixing. You don’t want to overwork it.
- Wrap the dough in cling film (or cling film alternative) and chill it in the fridge for at least one hour or up to a week. You could also freeze it for up to 2 months. Make the pastry cream in the meantime.
- Once you’re ready to work with it, preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface or between two pieces of parchment to about 4mm or a bit more than ⅛ inch thick and bigger than the diameter of your pie pan. If the dough starts to soften too much, pop it in the fridge for about 10 minutes before continuing.*You can also just grab pieces of dough and press them evenly into your pie dish/pan to form the tart shell if you don’t want to roll it out.
- Transfer the rolled out dough to your 18cm/7”pie pan and press it in evenly, making sure it gets well into the corner.
- Place the whole thing in the fridge for about 20 minutes to solidify, then trim the top edge with a paring knife and dock the bottom with a fork.
- Bake for about 25 minutes, it should be golden brown all over and pulling away from the sides of your pie pan.
- Let the tart shell cool a few minutes before removing it from the pan and letting it cool completely on a wire rack. Then you can optionally use a microplane to smooth out the edges.
Crème Pâtissière/Pastry Cream
- *Optional: if using a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds out and stir them into the milk along with the scraped bean. Bring to a simmer, turn off the heat, cover and let infuse for 30 minutes, then pull out the scraped bean and proceed with the recipe.
- Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, nutritional yeast, turmeric and salt.
- Have your butter cubed up and ready.
- In a small saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla over medium heat until barely simmering.
- Add about 1/4 of the milk to the dry ingredients while whisking. Then pour that mixture back into the saucepan while also whisking.
- Return to the heat and whisk constantly. When it starts to thicken, whisk vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes, making sure to get the corners. When you stop for a few seconds, you should see a few big bubbles coming to the surface and popping.
- Turn off the heat and whisk in the butter until completely melted and smooth then pour the cream onto a tray or plate with edges. The thinner it’s spread the faster it will cool.
- Cover with cling wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming and store in the fridge to set.
- When it’s ready to be used, transfer it to a bowl (it will be quite jelly-like) and whisk or stir with a stiff spatula until smooth and creamy. You could also do this with an electric mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
- In the microwave: In a microwave-safe bowl, Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, nutritional yeast, turmeric and salt. Add in the vanilla then slowly add in the milk while whisking to prevent lumps. Add in the butter (melted or not) and heat the whole thing in the microwave in 30 second bursts, whisking in between, until it has bubbled, thickened and is completely smooth. And voilà!
Assembly
- If you’re going to store the finished tart, brush the inside of the tart shell with melted cocoa butter or chocolate of your choice and let it harden before adding the pastry cream. That will “insulate” the crust against the moisture of the cream.
- Pipe or spoon the smoothed out pastry cream into the tart shell all the way to the top. If you have some leftover, pipe some dots on the surface. Trim the leaves off your fresh strawberries and arrange them whole or cut up however you like on top of the tart.
Notes
- *Disclaimer: I have a tiny not-so-great oven, so your bake time may vary from mine.
- I strongly suggest making recipes by weight, if you make them by cups I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the same results.
This recipe was so fantastic- it was my first time making both crème Pat and pate sucre but it really came out well. The microwave trick is GENIUS. I’m so happy to have found your website- thanks for all your hard work!
What that’s amazing Veronica!! I’m so happy you liked it, thank you so much for the kind words, it means a lot☺️
This is by far the best pâte sucrée recipe I’ve tried! It came together like an absolute dream, and this pastry cream, oh my gosh! This is definitely a new staple recipe!
Thank you for the kind words Miranda! So happy you liked it, knowing someone makes one of these recipes a staple warms my heart every time 🥰