When the spring time comes, the windows of French cake shops become full of this strawberry pie. Lots of restaurants, as well, are proud to offer their homemade version almost every day. This is probably the seasonal dessert par excellence. Plus, making strawberry pie at home is very easy. It only needs to bake the shortcrust pastry, fill in with pastry cream and topping with strawberries. So good!
French Strawberry Pie Recipe
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Serves: 4 Time: 1 h 30 m Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
250 g of strawberries, well washed, without leaves and halved lengthwise
1 shortcrust pastry (click for recipe)
125 g of sifted flour
60 g of cold butter, cut into cubes
1 medium egg
1 dash of milk
1 tablespoon of sugar
Lemon zest (optional)
500 g of pastry cream (click for recipe)
350 ml of whole milk
1 vanilla pod
4 egg yolks
80 g sugar
35 g of cornstarch
35 g of butter
Topping (optional)
50 ml of water
1 sheet of gelatin without flavor
2 tablespoons of icing sugar
Directions
Prepare the shortcrust pastry
Mix the flour and diced butter, until you get a sandy consistency.
Add sugar, the egg, a dash of milk and a pinch of salt.
Knead until smooth. Do not knead too much, to avoid losing the shortcrust consistency.
Form a ball, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
Prepare the pastry cream
Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat with the vanilla seeds scraped with a knife and the remainder pod.
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture whitens. Gradually add cornstarch, stirring constantly.
When the milk boils, remove the vanilla pod and gradually pour in the egg mixture while whisking.
Once the milk has been integrated, put the mixture in the saucepan over medium heat until boiling. Stir frequently to avoid burning.
Once it begins to boil, remove from heat and pour into the bowl again. Let it cool.
When the cream is warm, add the butter and whisk. Reserve.
Preheat oven to 175 º C, heat top and bottom.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and spread with a rolling pin on a floured surface, enough for a 23 cm diameter mold. Place it the mold previously buttered and floured.
With a fork, make holes on the surface of the pastry.
Place on the bottom a baking sheet paper cut into a circle. Fill with baking beads or legumes.
Bake the pastry alone for 20 minutes.
Once cooked, carefully unmold and let cool.
Garnish the bottom of the pie with custard and cover with strawberries. For example, make circles in one direction and then on the other, as seen in the photo.
Prepare the jelly topping:
Soak the gelatin in cold water for about 5 minutes.
Pour the water into a small saucepan and dissolve the icing sugar.
Heat the saucepan over medium heat until the water boils.
Remove from heat, drain well the gelatin and dissolve it in the water.
Let cool about 3 or 4 minutes to cool.
Brush all the strawberries with a pastry brush.
Keep at least two hours in the refrigerator before eating.
Done.
Hints, Tips, and Tricks
Use very good quality strawberries for this recipe.
You can find a more detailed description of the recipe for the shortcrust pastry and the pastry cream following the links.
If you want, serve it with some whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
The topping is optional, but it gives strawberries a sweeter flavor.
You can make the topping with strawberry jam instead of gelatin and sugar. To do this, mix jam with water, pass it through the Chinese strainer to remove the chunks and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat, let cool and use it to brush the pie.
You should use lots of legumes or baking balls to prevent the pastry from deforming while baking.
Reuse legumes to bake other pastries, but never eat them afterwards.
You can freeze the remaining egg whites. Once thawed, they can be used to make meringue.
You can also prepare this pie into individual portions.
