Strawberry and pink peppercorn tart
Strawberry and pink peppercorn curd tart
Well, an exciting development happened to me recently. Earlier this year, I received an email from the Tesco commission team who invited me to write a recipe and take part in a video shoot to celebrate Pride month. This opportunity was huge for my food career and I had to say yes! Now what they don’t tell you is that it can take a few weeks for a recipe to go from concept to execution. And after I wrote the piece for Tesco, it got me thinking about how I could turn the concept completely on its head. In comes the strawberry and pink peppercorn curd tart.
Now strawberry and pink peppercorn is a great flavour combination, mostly cause the floral notes to marry well with the sweetness of strawberries. So I then thought “why not combine them together and add in a coconut chocolate pastry to pair with it?”. Once you try this recipe you won’t regret it. Oh and pineapple flowers. They seem complicated to make, but honestly, they are pretty straightforward in terms of decorations. And I feel the flowers work as they signal the floral notes from the pink peppercorns. Let me know what you think!
A few notes. You can make this in around 3 hours (plus a few hours of cooling time), although I suggest making the tart the day before to prevent stress. I recommend using a food processor, however, you can make the pastry by hand. Finally, feel inspired by my design and make it your own!
Ingredients
For the pastry
160 g plain white flour
60 g desiccated coconut
30 g cocoa powder
30 g icing sugar
½ tsp fine sea salt
140 g unsalted butter cubed and from the fridge
1 large egg yolk, separated
1 large egg white, separated
2-3 tbsp ice cold water
For the curd
600 g sliced and hulled strawberries
330 g granulated sugar
5 whole large eggs, 3 large egg yolks
1 ½ tbsp whole pink peppercorns
250 g strained Greek yoghurt
12 drops of red food colouring (optional)
For the decoration
Half a large pineapple
A muffin tin
Instructions
The day prior to making the tart, prepare your pineapple flowers. Remove the skin off your pineapple and carefully remove the outer pits without the pineapple flesh. Cut the pineapple into 2 mm slices and place it on a lined baking tray. Place the slices into a preheated fan oven at 130 degrees for between 1-2 hours, turning over every half an hour. The pineapples are ready to take out when they have reduced in size, developed a deep golden colour and shrunk in size. Before they are completely dry, place the dried slices in a muffin tin to set ideally overnight.
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients and butter in a food processor and blend together to form a breadcrumb consistency. Place the contents into a large bowl. Add your egg yolk and ice cold water into your mixture and using a knife, stir until the mixture begins to clump together. Don't be alarmed by the dough is slightly dry.
Put the contents of the bowl on a work surface and gently knead the pastry until combined. Finally, place your pastry between two pieces of parchment paper and roll it out to the thickness of about 3 mm (pound coin thickness), turning it 90 degrees between each roll. Place the pastry sheet in the fridge and let it chill for 15 minutes.
Next, preheat your oven to 190 degrees celsius, 170 fan. Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the base of a 10 inch, 4 cm deep tart tin. Remove your pastry from the fridge and gently fold it in half and in half again to form a quarter. Place the quartered pastry into the centre of the tin and unfold it so that it covers the whole tin. Gently press your pastry into the tin so that it fits in all the grooves. Leave a centimetre of excess pastry and use the scrap pastry to fill in any gaps. Use a fork to place light holes across your pastry base and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Take your pastry out of the freezer, line the tart case with parchment paper and fill with baking beans. Place your tart case in the oven and bake for around 22 minutes or until the pastry begins to shrink from the sides. Remove the parchment paper and beans and with a serrated knife, trim off the excess pastry. Place the case back in the oven and bake for another 5-7 minutes or until the base is no longer damp. Remove your tart case add an egg white wash and place in the oven for 2 mins. Finally, remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 140 degrees fan.
Prepare your curd. Place the strawberries, water and pink peppercorns into a blender and place on a high speed until well combined. Next, add the sugar, eggs and strawberry mixture into a large pot and mix together with a whisk. Continue to whisk and place the mixture over a low heat. Keep stirring for around 12 minutes and once the mixture begins to thicken and covers the back of a spoon, take it off the heat. Whisk in your yoghurt and strain your curd into a large bowl. Place the baked tart case in its tin back into the oven and carefully pour the curd into the case. Bake for around 20-25 minutes until there is a slight jiggle in the middle of the tart. Remove from the oven and let it cool for an hour at room temperature before transferring it to the fridge to completely set (minimum 2 hours ideally overnight).
Once your tart has fully set, decorate with the dried pineapple flowers. Serve.
Note: if you don't have a food processor, you can break the butter up by hand to eventually resemble fine breadcrumbs