Vanilla bean scented Strawberry Tart

I've been all about fruit lately.  We've had some beautiful strawberries in the fridge so I thought that it was finally time for a creamy French tart.

 

You can actually see the vanilla bean in the pastry cream!  How awesome is that?

This 'pie' crust was a super fun version, I used butter and cream cheese with no water to make this dense and decadent delight.  My grandpa said, "Honey, are we going to get some whipped cream to put on top?"  Why yes grandpa, we certainly are.

Adapted from the Art & Soul of Baking's traditional fruit tart

pastry cream:

1 1/2 c. Almond milk

2 vanilla beans

1 egg

2 egg yolk

1/4 c. flour

6 Tbl. unrefined sugar

Place Almond milk into saucepan on med heat. Score vanilla beans down center, Using blunt end of knife scrape contents into milk. Bring milk to a simmer and shut off heat when tiny bubbles form.  Let vanilla steep in milk for fifteen minutes.  In a small bowl whisk sugar and eggs together.  When smooth add flour and mix until smooth. Once the milk has had time to absorb the vanilla scent, slowly pour a 1/4 or so of the warm milk into the egg mixture.  Whisk until smooth.  Now pour that egg mixture back into the pot on the stove and turn heat up to med. Whisk constantly while this mixture thickens like gravy or pudding.  Remove from heat.  If your mixture contains lumps, feel free to strain it.  If not, let cool on counter or in fridge until ready to serve.

 Crust:

1 1/2 c.  All purpose flour or whole wheat

1/2 c. butter

1 c. cream cheese

1 Tbl. unrefined sugar

1 tsp. salt

*1/4 c. white choc. chip

Mix dry ingredients in bowl.  cube in butter and mix until the consistency is that of bread crumbs.  Spoon in cream cheese with a Table or Soup spoon. Use your hands or a stand mixer to bring the dough together.  It will be quite soft like play dough.  Roll dough out between two sheets of parchment or saran and fold into quarters.  Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375

Remove chilled dough and place in tart pan.  I used a spring form. Once the dough is in place, put foil on top and fill with pie weights. The easiest way to do this is to pour a bunch of dry beans on top of the foil.  The point of this is to keep the shape of the crust rather than having in puff up or fall in on itself.  And believe me, with this much butter and cream (cheese) it will!  Bake for 20-25 mins. until outer edges are golden.

*While crust is still hot spread the 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips all over the bottom.  Wait about 2 minutes then use the back side of a spoon to smear white chocolate all over the bottom of the crust to cool and harden.  This way the crust will maintain its integrity after adding the pastry cream.

 When all ingredients are cool, pour pastry cream into tart and spread evenly.  Slice berries and desired and arrage as desired. 

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