Strawberry and lime sablé breton tart

The last summery recipe for this year! It is a fairly simple recipe with only 3 elements. But it is nonetheless delicious! I brought it to work for my birthday and it was a success!

The sablé breton base on its own is delicious. The delicacy of the sablé breton base and the vanilla diplomat cream is very well balanced by the freshness of the strawberries and the mint, as well as the sourness of the lime. I made this tart in a ring shape for a change, I also find it easier to slice it than when it has a traditional round shape.

This tart is made of :

• a sablé breton base with lime zests

• A vanilla diplomat cream

• A strawberry compote

• Strawberry halves

• Mint leaves and lime zests to decorate

Below is how I suggest you plqn your time to make this tart :

Day 1 :

• Make the pastry cream

• Make the strawberry compote

Day 2 :

• Make the sablé breton base

• Finish the diplomat cream

• Assemble the cake

Sablé breton base with lime zests:

• 200g of flour

• 110g of sugar

• 140g of soft butter

• 3g of sea salt

• 3 egg yolks

• 7g of baking powder

• The zests of half a lime

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, pour the egg yolks and the sugar and whisk at high speed for a few minutes until the mixture becomes creamy.

2. While whisking, add in the soft butter little by little and the lime zests.

3. Once the butter is well combined, replace the whisk with the beater.

4. Sift the flour and the baking powder into the mixture. Add in the sea salt, and mix on medium speed until you obtain a smooth dough.

5. Roll the dough in between 2 sheets of baking paper on a thickness of about 1.5 cm. With a 24 cm pastry ring, cut a circle in the dough and leave the pastry ring around it so that it keeps its shape while baking.

6. With a smaller pastry ring, or a metal cookie cutter, cut the centre of the dough and leave the pastry ring in the dough so that it keeps its shape.

7. Bake at 170°C for 25 minutes in a preheated oven.

Vanilla diplomat cream:

• 312g of milk

• 63g of egg yolks

• 75g of sugar

• 32g of cornstarch

• 32g of cold butter

• 1/2 vanilla bean

• 150g of double cream (30% fat content)

• 7g of gelatin

1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 5-10 minutes.

2. Pour the milk in a saucepan, add the vanilla grains and the empty bean and bring to the boil.

3. Remove from the heat, cover with cling film and let infuse for 30 minutes.

4. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar for about 20 seconds.

5. Add in the cornflour, and mix in well.

6. Bring the vanilla infused milk to the boil.

7. Pour half of the milk on the egg yolks-sugar-cornflour mixture and mix well.

8. Pour this mixture back in the saucepan containing the milk. Cook the pastry cream on medium heat while stirring constantly.

9. Once the cream has thickened and starts to boil, keep on stirring on medium heat for about 1 minute.

10. Remove the pan from the heat, add in the gelatine leaves and mix well.

11. Add in the cold butter cut in small pieces and mix well until it's all melted and incorporated.

12. Pour the pastry cream in a bowl, cover its surface with cling film. If you're in a hurry, you can leave the pastry cream in the freezer for 15 minutes so that it cools down quickly. Otherwise, leave it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight then smooth it with a hand blender.

13. Whip the cold double cream on medium speed (place the whisk and the bowl for whipping the double cream in the fridge 10 minutes before). You don't want to whip ittoo quickly in order to add more air into the mixture. Also you don't want to it to be too stiff but still a bit creamy.

14. Add in one third of the whipped cream in the elderflower pastry cream and mix well with a whisk.

15. Add in the rest of the whipped cream and fold in very softly with a spatula.

Strawberry compote:

• 110g of strawberry puree

• 6g of sugar

• 1g of pectin

• 1.5g of lemon juice

1. In a bowl, mix the pectin and the sugar.

2. Heat the strawberry puree in a saucepan until it starts boiling.

3. Add in the sugar / pectin mixture and mix vigorously.

4. Add in the lemon juice and stir.

5. Keep boiling while stirring for a couple more minutes, then remove from the heat.

6. Pour the compote in a bowl; cover it with cling film and keep it in the fridge so that it cools down.

Assembling the tart :

• Strawberries

• Lime zests

• Mint leaves

1. Place the diplomat cream in a piping bag with a large round piping tip (about 1.5 – 2 cm of diameter).

2. Piping two rows of diplomat cream on the sablé breton base.

3. Pipe some strawberry compote in between the two rows of diplomat cream.

4. Place strawberries halves on top.

5. Place some mint leaves and sprinkle some lemon zests on top of the tart to finish.