The Friday Baking Project

Strawberry Heart Tarts

Yield: 6 individual tarts

# of Servings:  1 Tart

Ingredients

P¢te Bris©e

• 2 cups (9.3 oz / 264 g) pastry or all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup (6 oz / 170 g) unsalted butter
• â…“ to ½ cup ice water

Cream Filling

1. ½ recipe Pastry Cream
2. 1 cup (8 fl oz) heavy cream
3. 2 oz chocolate, 55% to 61%, melted
4. 2 quarts fresh strawberries, washed, cored and halved.
5. 1 cup apricot preserves, strained

Special equipment needed:

• Food processor or pastry blender
• Rolling pin, silpat sheet
• 6 individual heart tarts or Coeur a la crème molds
• 2-quart heavy bottomed sauce pan
• Small pastry brush
• Plastic pastry bag and ⅜†(Ateco 804) pastry tube

Pre-recipe preparations:

• Cut butter into cubes and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, or until 58 °F to 60 °F¹

Directions

Pie Dough:

1. Place flour and salt in food processor, process for 5 seconds.
2. Add butter and process, using the pulse switch, just until no piece of butter is larger than a pea.
3. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl.
4. Using a plastic spatula to mix, add enough of the ice water until the dough comes together. Add dribbles of ice water to any dry parts remaining in the bowl.
5. Scrape the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Enclose in plastic film and press into a rectangle.
6. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or longer. May be stored in refrigerator for 3 days or freezer for 2 months.

Rolling out dough:

1. Remove dough from refrigerator approximately 30 to minutes prior to rolling out.
2. On a floured half-sheet pan sized silpat sheet or a floured counter, roll out the dough a 12†by 16†rectangle. If dough has softened, place on a half-sheet pan and place in refrigerator to firm up.
3. Using a 5 ½â€œ wide heart cutter or a cardboard template, cut 6 hearts from the dough.
4. Drape a single dough heart over the back of each mold and press against the mold, removing excess dough.
5. Place the hearts on a baking sheet, prick the tops with a fork, and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
6. The hearts may be prepared to this point and kept in refrigerator overnight or in the freezer for two weeks.

Baking and lining the hearts with chocolate:

• Preheat oven to 375 °F

1. Bake the heart tarts until is just starting to color, approximately 20 – 22 minutes.   Leave oven on.
2. Remove baking sheet from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
3. Gently remove the baked pastry from the molds and set on the baking sheet with the bottoms on the sheet. If the inside dough is slightly underbaked, bake for an additional 5 minutes.
4. Let cool until just room temperature.
5. Brush the inside of each heart pastry with a thin layer of chocolate. Set aside until the chocolate is set

Finishing the heart tarts:

1. Place the pastry cream in medium mixing bowl.
2. In a chilled bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks.
3. Whisk about ¼ of the whipped cream into the pastry cream to lighten, then fold in remainder.
4. Using a pastry bag and __ round tip or a teaspoon, fill ¼ of each tart shell with cream.
5. Arrange strawberry halves in each tart.
6. Heat the strained apricot preserves with a few droplets of water, until is just thin enough to gently brush over the berries.
7. Refrigerate tarts.

Baking tips:

1. Work on this in stages. The pastry dough can be made and draped over the heart molds far in advance and frozen. The pastry cream can be made a day or two ahead. That leaves just the baking and filling for the day of.
2. Try to find medium sized berries, they fit together better in the tart shell.

Amazon has molds similar to the ones used in this blog: Amazon.com: 11 Pieces Valentine’s Aluminium Heart Shaped Cake Pan for Baking 10 and 3 Inches Heart Pan with Removable Bottom Cake Pan Set Mold DIY Tin Muffin Chocolate Mold: Home & Kitchen