Strawberry Pistachio Tart with Sable Breton Crust

This Strawberry Pistachio Tart with Sable Breton Crust is a beautiful dessert recipe when strawberries start to come into season. It’s equally delicious as it is beautiful, it can be made across 2 days to help manage the prep! 

The combination of the sweet strawberries with the nutty and decadent pistachio pastry cream, on a base of buttery sable Breton pastry, is just divine!

Recipe Pairing Ideas:

• A lovely cocktail idea would be my Rosé Pamplemousse Cocktail, which is crisp and refreshing and looks so pretty too.
• For a cocktail nibble try my impressive but (oh so easy!) Tarte au Soleil with Pesto or my Mini Goat Cheese Tartlets that disappear in minutes!
• For the main course try my Pan-Seared Salmon with Beurre Blanc Sauce or some delicious make-ahead Chicken and Mushroom Crepes.

Make-Ahead Tips:

• You can make the crust the day before, refrigerate and bake the day of serving
• You can make the pastry cream a day before, refrigerate until ready to assemble
• Allow the tart to refrigerate a minimum of 4 hours before serving to allow the pastry cream to firm up. It will create a cleaner slice that way.

Watch My Demo of this Recipe Below!

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Step#1: Make the Dough

• This sable Breton dough is quite buttery and needs to be well-chilled before it’s baked.
• You can make the dough the day before. Press it into a disc, cover it in parchment paper and refrigerate.

Step#2 Make the Pistachio Paste

• You could buy the pistachio paste but I find it’s quite expensive and sometimes difficult to find.
• I think it’s easier and tastier to make it yourself! Start with raw, very green, already shelled pistachios. 

Shopping Tip:

• The best place to find pistachios, already shelled in large quantities is at your local Mediterranean or Middle-Eastern markets!
• Buy an extra box and you’ll have enough to make my Pistachio Olive Oil Cakes another great pistachio recipe!
• Place them in a food processor with sugar, pulse them up and then add a little water and you’ll have a fine crumb that will turn into a paste-like consistency when pressed between your fingers.

Step#3: Make the Pastry Cream

• You’ll add the pistachio paste and milk to a large saucepot. Then bring to a simmer, shut off the flame, and steep the pistachios in the milk for 20 minutes.
• This will infuse the milk with pistachio flavor.
• You’ll add the milk to eggs and cornstarch, and cook this mixture until a pastry cream forms. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

This pistachio pastry cream would also be really delicious piped into some choux pastry shells for Cream Puffs, you can check out my Profiterole Recipe for the pastry shell recipe or it would be great in Eclairs too!

Step#4: Bake the Pastry 

You will then roll out your pastry dough to a large circle. Press the ring of a springform pan on top, like a big cookie cutter and trim.

Crust Baking Tips

• Bake the dough in the ring in order to set it. Then when you release the ring you’ll have a perfect circle.
• Be sure you brush the ring with baking spray and distribute it well with a pastry brush.
• This will allow for easy release of the biscuit and avoid it cracking.

Bake the pastry in the ring until golden brown and set. Then release it and place it on a cake stand.

Step#5: Assemble the Tart

Start by brushing a layer of warm strawberry jam on the bottom. This will act as a “glue” to keep the berries in place and give your tart a nice sweet strawberry flavor under the pastry cream.

Placing the Berries

• Add a border of raspberries around the edge and then place your strawberries in the center.
• Cut the strawberries so they are roughly the same height.
• You’ll want to space them out about an inch apart to leave room for the pastry cream.

Adding the Jelly

• Then brush the strawberries with the liquified strawberry jelly for shine.
• The jelly works better than the jam, since the jam has too many whole pieces of fruit in it that won’t give you the best smooth finish as the jelly.
• I prefer to brush only the strawberries and leave the raspberries as is, I think they look prettier that way.

Garnishing and Serving

• Pipe the pistachio pastry cream in between the fruit.
• Then garnish your tart with roughly chopped pistachios.

To Serve

• Keep your tart refrigerated for a minimum of 2 hours for the pastry cream to set up.
• This will make it easier to slice and assure you get nice clean edges around your slice.

More delicious tart recipes!

• French Apple Tart
• Triple Berry Fruit Tart
• Lemon Meringue Tart
• Apple Walnut Tart
• Apricot Galette

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Strawberry Pistachio Tart with Sable Breton Crust

Yield: serves 8

Prep Time: 1 day

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 day 30 minutes

This tart is as delicious as it is beautiful! It can also be made across 2 days to help manage the prep. Perfect for Easter Sunday or Mother's Day.

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Ingredients

For Sable Breton:

• 4 egg yolks
• ¾ cup (150g) of sugar
• ¾ cup (180g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla
• 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp (10ml) baking powder
• ¼ tsp (1.25ml) salt

Pistachio Paste:

• 1 cup (150g) raw, unsalted pistachios (shelled)
• ½ cup (100g) sugar
• 1 tbsp (15ml) water

Pastry Cream:

• 2 cups (475ml) milk
• 1 cup (150g) Pistachio Paste
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup (35g) cornstarch
• 2 tbsp (30g) butter

To Garnish:

• 1/3 cup (80 ml) strawberry jelly
• 25-30 Raspberries (depending upon the size you may need more or less)
• 5-6 large strawberries
• 1 tbsp (20g) chopped raw pistachios

Instructions

The Day Before:

1. For the sable Breton, in a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, the baking powder, and the salt, set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the egg yolks and sugar for 5-7 minutes until smooth and pale yellow.
3. Add the softened butter, in cubes until combined. Add the vanilla.
4. Add the flour a little at a time, beating in between each addition, until a dough forms.
5. Roll dough into a ball, flatten it into a disk, and wrap it in parchment paper. Refrigerate for a minimum of over 4 hours but overnight is even better.
6. For the pistachio paste, add the shelled pistachios to a food processor with the sugar. Process on high until a fine meal forms, keep going until this meal starts to stick together with pressed between fingertips. Then add the water and process until a loose paste forms. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
7. To prepare the pastry cream, add milk and pistachio paste to a medium saucepot. Heat mixture until simmering and hot. Turn off heat, cover, and “steep” mixture for 20 minutes to infuse the milk with the flavor of the pistachio.
8. Once fully steeped, add 4 egg yolks to a large bowl, add cornstarch. Whisk together to form a yellow paste. Slowly pour in the pistachio milk, whisking until combined.
9. Strain pistachio mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, into a cleaned-out saucepot. Heat on medium-high flame, whisking until thickened and eventually a pastry cream will form. Add butter and swirl until smooth.
10. Transfer pastry cream to a shallow bowl. Press plastic wrap onto to assure a skin doesn’t form.
11. Refrigerate a minimum of 4 hours, but overnight is even better.

The Day Of:

1. Preheat oven to 350F (176C).
2. Roll out dough, on a sheet of parchment paper, to a 10-inch (25cm) circle, ¼” (6 mm) thick. Slide a cookie sheet under the parchment paper.
3. Lightly spray the ring of a 10-inch (25cm) springform pan, or tart ring, with baking spray. Distribute spray with a pastry brush. Press ring into the dough (like a giant cookie cutter) trim outer edges clean with a sharp knife.
4. Bake 20 minutes until the biscuit is golden brown. Allow to cool completely.
5. Once cooled transfer to a cake stand to assemble the tart.
6. Heat strawberry jelly in the microwave for :30 until liquefied. Brush biscuit with a layer of jam. Arrange raspberries all around the edge. In the center, create a circle of upright strawberries, allowing 1-inch in between them. Place the largest strawberry in the center.
7. Brush each strawberry with the strawberry jam until they are well-coated and shiny.
8. Transfer chilled pastry cream to a pastry bag fitted with your favorite swirly pastry tip.
9. Pipe small mounds between the raspberries and strawberry border, then add larger mounds in-between the strawberries.
10. Top the tart with chopped raw pistachios. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Best served the same day it is assembled.

Notes

• The best place to buy raw, shelled pistachios is either in your Middle-Eastern Markets or Trader Joes!

• If you have pastry dough leftover, keep it refrigerated and you can make small Sable Breton Cookies with it. Just roll it out and cut them out with a cookie cutter. Bake at 350F until set and golden brown.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 7Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1mgCarbohydrates: 2gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 0g