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Vegan strawberry tart

Vegan Strawberry Tart

Tatyana
This simple vegan strawberry tart is delicious and a great way to use strawberries in a dessert. Crisp and buttery tart shell, smooth and creamy custard and fresh strawberries on top!
5 from 2 votes
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Course Dessert
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes
Servings 6

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.