Strawberries and blackcurrants may not be the most well-known combo but they’re amazing together!   Love at first bite, the mellow strawberries calm the powerful blackcurrant curd for a marriage made in heaven. It’s worth tracking down  blackcurrants or blackcurrant purée though blackberries are supposed to be a good substitute.  The vegan blackcurrant curd is sweetened only with maple syrup.  My tarts were made with homemade spelt puff pastry but shop-bought puff or shortcrust pastry are fine too, as are vegan or gluten-free pastry.  The strawberries are cut in thin vertical strips and fanned out, providing a lovely amount of strawberry that’s easy to bite into.  This could be my favourite strawberry tart of all time.  In the midst of this cold weather and surprising snow let’s pretend it’s Spring or Summer and have a vibrant delicious strawberry tart with vegan blackcurrant curd!  Sunnier times are on their way – to our stomachs. 🙂

The layer of white chocolate (can be vegan or sugarfree) helps prevent softening of the pastry but it’s optional.  Even without it the tarts are fine for a day or two.

It’s a very simple invention.

I tried it with raspberries too – it all becomes a bit more acidic.  Still good…

… but strawberries are perfect with the blackcurrant (or blackberry) curd.  Even if you don’t have the tastiest strawberries somehow the blackcurrant enhances their flavour.

THE RECIPE

Healthier blackcurrant curd (vegan) – makes about 130g/1/2 cup

This is a fairly flexible recipe.  You can make it sweeter with more maple syrup or milder with more milk.  If you add a lot more liquid then add a little extra cornflour too.  I’m not being paid to write this but I’ve found Capfruit purées really handy and great value for money.  Here’s the link for the blackcurrant purée you can order from le Meilleur du Chef (sorry, they don’t deliver it to the US at the moment).

• 3 tsp (8g) cornflour (cornstarch/Maizena)
• 3 tsp (15g) mineral water
• 92g/ml blackcurrant or blackberry purée (if using Capfruit purée that already includes 10% sugar:  100g purée and 40g/2 tbsp pure maple syrup (or honey/sugar)
• 50g/2 and 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup (or honey/sugar), or more according to taste
• 30g/ml almond milk (or other kind of milk) – for a milder cream you could try increasing the quantity to 35-40g
• 15g/1 tablespoon unsalted butter (optionally vegan butter), good quality

Pastry

For a 20cm/8in tart ring you’ll need about 220g/7.7oz pastry.  Or more pastry to be on the safe side and a few little tart cases for leftover pastry.

Puff pastry (good quality all-butter shop-bought or here’s my homemade inverted puff pastry recipe).  Line and bake according to the instructions in my Flan Parisien recipe.

Shortcrust pastry (my recipe is here) – nice with half buckwheat flour and half Doves Farm gf self-raising flour for a tasty gluten-free version.  Lining and baking instructions here.

Cool pastry case completely before filling.

Assembling

You can optionally brush the pastry case with a thin layer of melted white chocolate.  This can help the pastry stay crisp and bring a little extra sweetness to the tart.  Melt the chocolate on a bain marie then use a pastry brush to coat the case.

Allow to cool then spread a layer of blackcurrant curd to the thickness you desire.  As it’s quite a powerfully-flavoured curd even a thin layer is enough to complement the strawberries.

I had  a little more curd in my first prototype.

But I prefer a thinner layer.

Cut the strawberries vertically in thin slices.  Try to keep them together, press down a little to fan out then place on the tart.  The most difficult thing’s getting them in nice positions but they’ll still be delicious.

Eating and storing

Store these tarts in an airtight container in the fridge.  They’re best eaten within half a day or on the same day.  They’ll still be fine on Day 2 and maybe Day 3 depending on the strawberries.  Take out of the fridge, exercise self-restraint (tee hee) and bring to room temperature for 20-30 minutes before serving.

Wow, that was easy wasn’t it!  Hope you’ll have a slice now!  With all the cold we need our vitamin C… and a bit of cheery colour.  🙂

Bye bye again dear reader!  Thanks for dropping in from the cold (or heat) and hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead next to a warm stove or under a blanket – or if you’re at the other end of the world, lounging with an nice iced drink!  Happy baking and eating! 🙂 Lili x