Based on the French classic Tarte aux Fraises, this vegan strawberry tart has a sweet pastry base, a creamy custard filling, and a gorgeous topping of glazed strawberries. The perfect summer dessert!
For me, summer isn’t really summer without some indulgent French patisserie! I grew up spending my holidays in the South of France and the village bakery was always a source of delights.
So here is my vegan version of the classic Tarte aux Fraises for your enjoyment!
It’s got a slightly sweet pastry crust. Then a creamy filling of vegan creme patissiere. And finally a topping of beautifully arranged strawberries, covered in a shiny glaze.
There are several elements to making this recipe, but they all fit together nicely.
First you make the pastry. Then you can make the custardy filling whilst the pastry rests in the fridge. Next, you roll out the pastry and bake the base in the oven. Then after some cooling time, you can prepare the strawberries and put it all together.
Pastry making tips
Cold ingredients will make flakier pastry - use block style vegan butter straight from the fridge, and ice water.
Overworking the dough can lead to tough pastry - work gently and use just enough water to bring it together into a ball.
When baking the pastry case, it’s important to prick the base with a fork, or cover in baking beans to stop the base from puffing up.
Step 1 - Rub the vegan butter into the flour.
Step 2 - Add the sugar.
Step 3 - Add the cold water.
Step 4 - Form the pastry into a ball and chill in the fridge.
Step 5 - Roll out the pastry into a circle.
Step 6 - Line a tart tin and prick the base with a fork to stop it from rising.
Step 7 - In a preheated oven at 190C bake blind until light golden brown. This takes around 15-20 minutes.
Creme patissiere tips
The vegan creme patissiere is made in a similar way to making custard.
Soy milk and vanilla are heated to just about boiling, then taken off the heat. Next a mix of cornstarch, sugar and some more soy milk is added in. Then return to the heat and gently bubble for 10 minutes.
At the end of the 10 minutes of gentle cooking, the mixture should be thickened somewhat, clinging to the surface of the whisk and leaving little ribbon trails for a moment as it falls back into the pan. Then whisk in the vegan butter.
Most of the thickening will happen as it cools down. Whisk occasionally as it cools to keep it smooth.
The keys to a smooth, lump free texture are:
- Mix the cornstarch slurry to completely smooth
- Vigorously whisk when adding the slurry to the heated soy milk
- Watch carefully and keep whisking during the 10 minutes cooking
Step 1 - Mix the cornstarch with the sugar and a tablespoon of soy milk.
Step 2 - In a saucepan, gently heat the remaining soy milk with the vanilla essence, until it is almost boiling.
Step 3 - Remove from the heat, then add the cornstarch mixture, whisking vigorously as you pour it in.
Step 4 - Return to the heat, and continue to cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. It will bubble gently.
Step 5 - Whisk in the vegan butter until it melts.
Step 6 - Set aside to cool and whisk occasionally.
Decorating tips
One of my favourite things about making this vegan strawberry tart is arranging all the fruit on top in a beautiful pattern.
If you are in a hurry, then you can simply toss sliced strawberries on top and go for the rustic look. But taking a bit of time to artistically arrange the fruit can really have the wow effect!
Try to choose fruits of a similar size, or sort them in size as you slice them. This will give you a more geometrically pleasing finish.
To arrange the tart as in we did for these pictures:
- Start with a circle of larger slices around the edge, points facing out.
- Create the next circle inside by placing the strawberry slices so that the point goes between two strawberry slices in the outer row.
- Continue filling in the tart, using smaller slices of strawberry as you go.
- Finish with a round slice in the centre.
We encourage you to be creative and enjoy decorating your tart!
There’s so many possibilities - you can halve the strawberries and have them facing cut side down, arrange all the slices in a spiral, or do circles of strawberries leaning in opposite directions. Have fun with it!
Variations & substitutions
Instead of making the pastry, you could use a store bought vegan shortcrust.
Use different fruits - any soft fruit works well, raspberries are particularly nice too.
To make individual portions - check out our vegan fruit tarts recipe.
As an alternative to apricot jam for the glaze, another seedless jam or jelly will work. You can also strain it to remove any bits.
Serving and storage
The tart will slice best if it has been chilled in the fridge first. Flavourwise, I think the fruit tastes better if you wait for it to come up to room temp again before serving (though it’s hard to wait!)
You don’t really need anything as an accompaniment to the tart, but a dusting of icing sugar, sprig of mint or a drizzle of melted dark chocolate is a nice touch!
Keep leftovers in a container in the fridge and eat up within a day. It might last longer depending on the ripeness of your fruit.
If you enjoy this vegan strawberry tart, we think you’ll also like our other fruity vegan recipes:
Vegan Redcurrant Meringue Tart
Enjoy!
Sophie
📖 Recipe
Vegan Strawberry Tart
Ingredients
Pastry
- 3 oz (85 g) vegan butter or margarine
- 6 oz (170 g) plain flour
- 1½ tbsp (1 ½ tbsp) sugar
- 2 - 3 tbsp ice water
Creme patissiere
- 1 tbsp soy milk
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
- 1 cup (240 ml) soy milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tbsp vegan butter
Topping
- 2 cups (300 g) strawberries
- 2 tsp apricot jam
- 2 tsp boiling water
Instructions
For the pastry bases
- Dice the vegan butter, and add it to a mixing bowl with the flour. Using your fingertips, rub in the fat into the flour until you have a lump free mixture resembling breadcrumbs.3 oz (85 g) vegan butter, 6 oz (170 g) plain flour
- Stir in the sugar.1½ tbsp (1 ½ tbsp) sugar
- Next add just enough ice-cold water to bring it into a firm, but not sticky, ball of dough. Avoid overworking the dough for light and flaky pastry.2 - 3 tbsp ice water
- Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. You can make the creme patisserie whilst the dough chills.
- Preheat your oven to 190°C (375°F).
- Dust a board and rolling pin with flour and roll out the ball of pastry to a thickness of 4mm / ⅛ inch.
- Holding the pastry draped over the rolling pin, transfer the sheet to line a 23cm / 9 inch fluted tart tin or dish. Take care not to stretch the dough, and gently ease it into the sides.
- Trim the edges with a knife, or by rolling the rolling pin firmly across the top of the dish and removing the excess.
- Prick the pastry base all over with a fork, so that it doesn't rise up during baking.
- Bake blind for 15-20 minutes until light golden brown.
For the creme patissiere
- Mix 1 spoonful of soy milk with the cornstarch and sugar, until very smooth.1 tbsp soy milk, 2 tbsp cornstarch, ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
- In a saucepan, gently heat the remaining soy milk with the vanilla extract until almost boiling.1 cup (240 ml) soy milk, 1 tsp vanilla essence
- When the soy milk is hot, remove from heat and pour in the cornstarch mixture, whisking vigorously.
- Return to heat, and continue to cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. The mixture will gently bubble and start to thicken.
- Next, whisk in the vegan butter until it melts.1 tbsp vegan butter
- Then set aside to cool, and whisk occasionally. As it cools it will thicken and start to hold its shape.
Assembling the tarts
- Wash, dry and slice your strawberries. You can arrange them by size to get a neater result when decorating.2 cups (300 g) strawberries
- Carefully remove the pastry base from the tin.
- Then fill it with the creme patissiere and top with the strawberries.
- To make the glaze, combine the jam with boiling water and use a silicone brush to cover the strawberries with the glaze.2 tsp apricot jam, 2 tsp boiling water
Notes
You'll also find our tips on how to arrange the strawberries on the tart for a beautiful finish. If your tart tin or dish is a different size you can adjust the servings in the recipe card and it will calculate the ingredients for you. You might have enough pastry and filling in the basic recipe to use a 25cm/ 10 inch dish, just increase the strawberries on top. A tart tin with a removable base makes it a lot easier to remove the pastry shell after blind baking. Leftover pastry offcuts can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days, or used to make our vegan jam tarts.
Nutrition
This information is calculated per serving and is an estimate only.
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