This striking and delicious strawberry tart has a two-tone shall, a white chocolate filling with fresh strawberries inside and on top and Swiss meringue buttercream holding it all together.
You're making two batches of pastry, one matcha and one pink. Later on they will be laminated together.
For the Strawberry Dough:
Add the icing sugar, butter, vanilla & salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. You can also use a hand mixer.
Beat the mixture on a medium speed for 2 minutes until it forms a paste. Scrape down the bowl after 1 minute.
Add in the egg yolks and mix until fully incorporated.
Add in the flour, and mix on low speed until it is just combined. You want the mixture to have JUST come together.
Transfer the dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. Add a second piece of parchment paper dusted with flour on top. Press down and then roll out to 1/8 an inch or 3mm.
Transfer to fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.
Cut dough into 1/4 inch strips. Let this hang out in the fridge while you work on the other dough.
For the Pink Dough
For the second batch, repeat the above steps. Just sift the strawberry powder in with the confectioners' sugar at the beginning. To make strawberry powder just grind up freeze dried strawberries and sift. I put them in a bag and smash with a rolling pin.
Cut dough into 1/4 inch strips.
On a separate piece of parchment paper alternate the pink and green strips making sure to press them together a bit as you go. Once finished place a second piece of parchment paper on top and roll together firmly.
Place the whole sheet of pastry dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. You should have enough dough for two batches so repeat the process with the rest of your strips.
Once the dough has chilled, remove one sheet from the fridge. Peel off the top sheet of parchment paper, very lightly flour the pastry, then flip it over.
Peel off the remaining sheet of parchment paper, lightly flour the dough again to prevent it from sticking.
Using an oval-shaped perforated tart ring (or any tart ring you have) cut out 6 tart bases.
Remove the second sheet of dough from fridge. Using a sharp knife, cut long strips of dough about 7-8” long and ¾” wide.
CAREFULLY lift the strips and place them on the inside of the tart rings. Press them against the side so they line up with the dough at the bottom. This is the most difficult part so try not to get impatient. you might need to piece the dough together in the tart ring.
Press the bottom of the dough gently with your fingers to mold it to the base of the dough.
Cut off any excess pastry hanging over the top of the tart rings with a sharp knife.
Place the tart shells into the freezer for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Pre-heat your oven to 320F. Place the tray with your tart shells in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes or until the shell is almost lightly golden. A longer bake time will give you a crisper shell but the color will not be as nice.
Remove tart shells from the oven and allow time to cool before piping so the filling does not melt.
For the White Chocolate Ganache:
Melt chocolate and cream together on low heat. Whisk together and reserve about 2 tablespoons. Sift in strawberry powder. mix again and set aside.
You might need to add more or less cream to achieve the desired consistency. Add a teaspoon of matcha powder to the smaller reserved potion and set aside as well.
Once you’re ready to assemble your tart, transfer the ganache to a piping bag and snip off the tip.
For the Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Add egg whites, sugar and salt in a bowl.
Give the mixture a brief whisk.
Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Making sure the water does not touch the bowl. Whisk the egg whites occasionally while it warms up. When the mixture has warmed, whisk it constantly.
Heat the mixture until it reaches an internal temperature of 160ºF or until it's not grainy between your fingers. Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk until you get room temperature glossy peaks.
Switch to a paddle attachment and while the mixture is running on low, add tablespoon sized dollops of room temperature butter making sure to let the butter incorporate before you add the next piece.
Once all the butter is incorporated, go ahead and add the vanilla extract.
Divide into two batches. One will have matcha powder mixed in. Add a teaspoon at a time, mix in and taste.
The second batch will get some strawberry powder and maybe a drop of soft pink food coloring added in. Add a teaspoon of the powder and see ho you like the color and taste once mixed in.
Once the chocolate is fully incorporated and you’re ready to assemble the tarts, transfer the chocolate buttercream to a piping bag and snip off the tip.
For the Strawberry Reduction
Add the sliced strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and optional corn syrup to a small pot over medium heat. Mash and reduce to a simmer.
Allow to reduce by about half. Strain into a bowl, cover and chill.
For the Mascarpone Filling
Transfer mascarpone to a medium bowl. Sift in powdered sugar and fold together. Mix in cooled strawberry reduction. You can add more than 1/4 cup if preferred and it's fine to whisk together if there are some lumps.
For the Circles
Melt candy melts in the microwave and spread half of out onto a sheet of parchment paper with an offset spatula. Use a sifter to dust a light layer of matcha powder onto the candy melt.
Repeat the above step with the other half using powdered strawberries instead.
Once cooled use a heated circle cutter or round piping tip to cut the candy melt. A palette knife can be used to remove the circles.
For the Assembly
Transfer the two batches of Swiss meringue buttercream to piping bags fitted to medium star tips.
Once your tart shells have cooled, pipe in the layer of chocolate ganache.
Add dots of the matcha ganache onto the strawberry layer.
Pipe a layer of the mascarpone filling and smooth so it's level to the tart shell.
Pipe tall pink and green dollops on the tart.
Add alternating pink and green candy melt circles onto the tart.
Notes
Make sure to freeze the tart shells completely before baking.
The best bake will be achieved with a perforated silicone mat and a perforated tart ring.
If you can't find strawberry powder just crush freeze dried strawberries in a plastic bag and sift.
You can totally use American buttercream if you want to save some time and like things a little sweeter. Or you can just use make a bigger batch of the mascarpone filling. It won't pipe as cleanly but it is delicious!