This is a very summery treat. Strawberry slices on a layer of vanilla pudding. Not much can beat that. I took the easy road and made custard pudding from a package. I am sure that it would be even nicer with home made custard, but you have to heat the yokes forever on low heat the prevent curdling. It’s not often that I have the patience for that. Admittedly, I also only added the nectarines for the decorative effect.

Total time: 2.5 hours (including cooling). Equipment: Tart form (preferably with removable bottom), pie weights.

Ingredients

Tart crust

• 150 g flour
• 100 g butter
• 75 g sugar
• 1 egg

Custard pudding

• 500 ml milk
• 30 g custard powder
• 30 g sugar

Topping

• 300 g strawberries
• 2 nectarines (optional)

Directions

First make the tart shell.

1. Grease a tart pan with a removable bottom and preheat your oven to 170C.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until fluffy and well combined.
3. Ad the egg and beat until completely incorporated.
4. Stir in the flour until you dough starts to come together. Probably you will have to knead it a bit with your hands.
5. Transfer the dough to a piece of cling film and wrap it tightly. If you shape it in to a flat disk it will cool down more quickly.
6. Place in the fridge for at least 30 min.
7. When the dough has firmed up a little you can role it out on a floured surface to a size large enough to cover your tart pan. Transfer the dough to your tart pan. Don’t worry if it cracks because you can just press it back together in the tart pan. Alternatively you can skip the rolling out part all together and just start pressing the dough into the pan until it is evenly covered.
8. With a for make a couple of small holes and place the dough in the fridge to chill for an hour. This will prevent the tart shell from shrinking when baking.
9. When the tart shell has chilled place a piece of baking paper on the tart shell and fill it with pie weights (dried beans will do the trick, or even rice). This will weigh the dough down while baking. Place in the oven and bake for 25 min.
10. Remove from the oven, remove the pie weights and and let cool.

Now proceed with the custard pudding

1. Take about 100 ml of the milk and whisk in the sugar and custard powder. Whisk until all lumps are gone.
2. Heat the remaining milk in a saucepan until it start to simmer.
3. Now add the milk-sugar-custard mixture. I like to pass it through strainer into the pan such that any lumps will stay behind. Start stirring constantly while heating over low heat. It will thicken quickly. After about 3 minutes the custard will be cooked.
4. Pour the hot custard over the pic crust and distribute evenly. Place a piece of cling film directly on top to prevent a skin from forming.
5. Let cool completely and chill further in the fridge until set.

Assemble the tart

1. Slice the strawberries and the nectarines as well (if using).
2. Distribute the fruit over the custard. To make the fruit extra shiny you can heat a little bit of jam and spread it over the fruit with a brush.
3. Finished!