This Strawberry Peach Tart has a sweet pastry crust filled with strawberry pastry cream, topped with fresh strawberries and peaches! It's a cool, creamy dessert with amazing summer flavor!
In a small bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and powdered sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add egg and mix to combine. If your egg is a little cool the butter may look a bit curdled, but the crust will still turn out fine!
Add flour mixture and mix until barely combined. Pour the mixture out onto the countertop and gently knead into a ball. Form the dough into a disc, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Grease a 9" tart pan with removable bottom (see note) and set aside.
After chilling, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll to about ¼" thickness and line the prepared pan. (Any leftover dough is great for making shapes for garnish or saving for mini tartlets.) Place the crust in the refrigerator to chill while the oven preheats to 350° F.
Place the chilled crust on a baking sheet. Line the crust with foil and fill with pie weights (see note). Bake 10 minutes, then remove foil/weights and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden. Allow the crust to cool completely in the pan.
For Strawberry Reduction
In a medium saucepan, combine strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar. Cook over medium heat until juice simmers and berries have softened.
Transfer mixture to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse the mixture until smooth. Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the berry mixture, returning the juice to the saucepan. You should have about ½ cup juice.
Cook juice over medium-low heat until reduced to about ¼ cup. Remove from the heat and set aside.
For Pastry Cream
In a small bowl, combine cornstarch (see note), ¼ cup sugar, and egg yolks. Whisk until smooth. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine milk, cream, ¼ cup sugar, vanilla bean paste (see note), and salt. Cook mixture oven over medium heat until it reaches a boil. Remove from the heat.
Using a heatproof measuring cup, pour about one cup of the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. This step tempers the eggs. Once the mixture is combined, pour the tempered egg mixture into the saucepan with the cream mixture.
Cook pastry cream over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it just starts to boil. Mixture will thicken as it cooks.
Remove the pan from the heat, and whisk the pastry cream until it cools slightly. Mix in butter and strawberry reduction until fully incorporated.
Pour the pastry cream into a medium bowl. Cover with plastic, pressing the wrap to the surface of the pastry cream to ensure it doesn't form a skin. Refrigerate until completely cooled, at least 3 hours.
Assembly
Fill cooled crust with pastry cream, smoothing the top. Top with fresh strawberries and peaches as desired.
The tart will keep, covered in the refrigerator, for up to three days, though the crust may start to get soggy the longer you store it.Enjoy!
Notes
Note on tart pan: I used a 9" tart pan with removable bottom. I like lighter color pans (as opposed to the darker, nonstick pans) because the crust browns more slowly. The recipe can also be made in a 4" x 14" rectangular tart pan with no alterations to the recipe.Note on pie weights: Pie weights really do help when blind-baking a crust, helping to keep the dough from rising/getting bubbles as it bakes. This makes sure that you have the room that you need for filling. You can buy actual pie weights if you'd like, but I just use black beans. They're cheap and you can use them over and over agNote on vanilla bean paste: I always have vanilla bean paste on-hand and prefer it's flavor to extract, so that's what I use. If you don't want to use vanilla bean paste, you can add vanilla extract at the end of cooking the pastry cream. Note on food coloring: While not necessary, as the pastry cream will still have a pretty pink color without it, you can add a few drops of pink food coloring if you'd like it to be more vibrant.