Strawberry Sablé Breton Tart

This delightful Sablé Breton Tart combines a beautiful rich pastry base with lighted pastry cream and fresh strawberries. The separate components can be made in advance, making this tart perfect for entertaining.

The French have several classic pastries perfect for making their famous fruit tarts. Pastries such as Pâte Sucrée (Sweet Short Crust Pastry) and Pâte Brissée (All Butter Pie Dough) are the more well-known ones.

However, Pâte Sablée (Rich Sweet Pastry) Dough is another fantastic alternative. We're using it in this recipe as it's easy to prepare and utterly delicious. Once baked, it's decorated with velvety, smooth, vanilla Crème Légère (a lightened pastry cream) and freshly macerated strawberries.

If you love making tarts, then my Plum Frangipane Tart, Easy Apple Tart and Apple Caramel Tart are delicious!

❓ What is Pâte Sablé?

Pronounced 'pat sah-blay', this may be the easiest French pastry to make. Sablée translates to 'sandy', describing the texture of the dough, which is crumbly and short. The tart dough is like my Classic Shortbread but with a richer, sweet/salty flavour as it's made with salted butter and egg yolks.

It can be rolled and stamped out to form French Butter Cookies (Sablé Breton Cookies).

Also, this pâtissérie-style dough can be lined in a tart tin and blind-baked for a more refined application, such as in my Tarte aux Fraises. Or it can be baked as a flat round for simplicity and ease.

🧾 Ingredients Needed

All ingredients are easily found in your local supermarket. There are a few points to note regarding individual ingredients that I've listed below.

Pâte Sablée

• Butter - The traditional way of making this tart dough is with European-style salted butter. European butter has a higher butter fat content and a lower water content, making it richer in flavour. If you can't find salted, then use unsalted and add in an extra ½ teaspoon of flaked sea salt.
• Eggs - Use two large egg yolks. Save the egg whites to make meringue nests or simple Lingue di Gatto Cookies.
• Salt - it may seem odd to add even more salt when also using salted butter. But this slight salt taste is what 'makes' this dough when cooked. It balances the sweet pastry cream and strawberries perfectly.

Crème Légère

• Eggs - Large egg yolks provide flavour and structure when cooked to the right consistency.
• Milk - Whole milk is best over skim or half-half, as it provides a richer, more well-rounded flavour due to its high-fat content. Don't substitute for heavy cream or double cream, as we are already folding in whipped double cream later in the recipe.
• Corn flour - (cornstarch) is needed to thicken the pastry cream. It's perfect as it doesn't alter the flavour, which plain flour tends to do. The pastry cream is a little thicker than I would normally make it, and this is because whipped cream is being folded through, and we don't want it too 'loose'.
• Cream - Go for double (heavy) rather than whipping cream as it has a better structure when whipped.
• Vanilla - this is the flavour that we want to taste predominantly. So use the caviar from a vanilla pod for a maximum, well-rounded flavour. You can use vanilla bean paste as a substitute or vanilla extract at a push.

Macerated Strawberries

• Strawberries - try and buy sweet, juicy ripe strawberries for maximum flavour.
• Sugar - just a little is enough to help draw out the juices and sweeten the strawberries. You can use lemon juice or balsamic vinegar as an alternative for a different flavour profile.

📖 Variations

• Add citrus zest, herbs or spices into the tart base for added variation. Orange or lemon zest, thyme or ground ginger are such examples.
• Flavour the pastry cream: Flavour with a couple of teaspoons of cocoa powder, maple syrup or espresso.
• Use any fresh fruit you like: Cherries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries would all be fantastic on top of this dessert.

STEP 3. Add in dry ingredients. Sift in the flour and baking powder, and add in the salt. Then beat on low until the dough just starts to come together. You don't want to overbeat at this point; otherwise, the dough will be tough (Images 5 & 6).

STEP 4. Bring the dough together and refrigerate. Use your hands to squeeze the dough together, catching any dry bits in the bottom of the bowl (Image 7).

Form the dough into a rough ball and shape it into a disc. Wrap well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to let the gluten rest (Image 8).

STEP 5. Roll out dough on a piece of parchment paper to a little larger than 20cm (8-inches) in diameter (Image 9).

The process of baking this base is super easy. No setting in a luted tart tin or blind baking is needed. All you need is a springform cake tin - and just the outside ring! It helps maintain the shape giving you a perfectly round base.

Place the ring over the dough and use a knife to run against the inside of the ring and cut the dough (Image 10). Or push the ring down to 'stamp' out the dough. Remove the excess scraps from around the edge.

STEP 6. Bake. The Breton dough can now be baked at 180C (350F) for 25 minutes until golden; the sides are set, but the centre is still soft. Let it cool for 20 minutes in the tin before transferring, releasing the springform clasp and gently lifting off the springform tin (Images 11 & 12). Transfer the base to a wire rack carefully. It can be quite fragile when warm. Cool completely.

Make the Crème Légère

This is split into two parts - making the pastry cream, followed by folding in the whipped cream.

STEP 1. Heat the milk. Heat the milk with the vanilla bean pod and half of the caviar in a small heavy-based saucepan set over medium heat on the stovetop. Heat the mixture until it's steaming, and some bubbles appear around the edges of the saucepan.

Whatever you do, don't boil it!!! Once warmed sufficiently then, turn the stovetop off. (Images 13 & 14). Set the milk aside for ten minutes to infuse further, then remove the vanilla pod.

STEP 2. Whisk eggs and sugar. In a separate bowl, add your egg yolks and sugar and whisk them together until thickened and pale. This takes about a minute, a little longer if done by hand (Images 15).

NOTE: Did you know that the sugar can dry out and 'burn' the egg yolks? So don't leave them in the bowl together for too long before whisking them.

Add in the cornflour and whisk until combined (Image 16).

STEP 3: Temper the eggs. What does that mean? The milk mixture is warm, and if you add it to the eggs directly, it will scramble them. Disaster! So, we temper by adding the warm milk mixture to the eggs whilst continuously whisking, which brings the temperature down (Image 17).

STEP 4: Heat the custard cream. Pour the mixture into the saucepan (Image 18) and set on low heat.

Carry on whisking whilst the custard heats and thickens (Images 19 & 20). This can take a couple of minutes. As soon as you see a bubble in the custard, you should heat it for another minute to ensure the yolks are cooked sufficiently, and then it's done.

NOTE: Don't be impatient and turn the heat up, hoping the thickening will happen quicker. All you'll get is a split custard and bits of cooked egg.

STEP 5. Add in butter and cool custard. I recommend passing the mixture through a sieve to remove any possible lumps (Image 21). Then add the cubed butter (Image 22) and whisk it in until fully melted and combined. The butter adds a beautiful sheen to the cream but also richness and helps the cream thicken (Image 23).

STEP 6. Chill the pastry cream. Cover the pastry cream with plastic wrap that touches the surface (Image 24). This inhibits the formation of skin over the top. Let it come to room temperature, and then refrigerate the cream until it's cold.

STEP 7. Whip the cream and fold through pastry cream.

Add the double cream to a bowl and whisk until firm peaks. You can do this by hand or with hand-held beaters. Careful not to over whisk otherwise, it will become grainy.

Remove the pastry cream from the fridge and give it a whisk to loosen up. Add the whipped cream into the pastry cream in two parts. Add a quarter of whipped cream and whisk until well combined (Image 25). It helps lighten up the cream ahead of the next addition.

Add in the remaining whipped cream and fold through with a rubber spatula, being careful not to knock out any air from the whipped cream (Image 26). Mix until you can no longer see the whipped cream. And that's it- you've made Crème Légère for the tart- fantastic.

Spoon the cream into a piping bag fitted with your favourite piping nozzle (open French star tip is mine!) and refrigerate until ready to use.

Assemble the Tart

The assembling of the Sable Breton Tart is incredibly quick. You can decorate it however you like. Channel Great British Bake Off Vibes (where this tart gained my popularity) and pipe the cream neatly or swirl it over with the back of the spoon. Place the strawberries neatly or pile them up on top of the cream. You choose!

Place the tart base onto a serving plate, then pipe the lightened pastry cream over the tart base (Image 29).

Top with macerated strawberries (Image 30), reserving strawberry juice.

Slice and serve the Strawberry Sablé Breton Tart immediately. With each slice, drizzle a little of the strawberry juice over the top.