This recipe is sized for a round 25 cm tart dish.

Prepare the tart crust:

Pre-heat your oven at 200 degree C.

Carefully unroll the shortcrust pastry. If you have a loose base tart dish, place the pastry directly onto the dish. If your dish is basic, like mine, line it with baking paper before covering it with the shortcrust pastry (don’t worry about the paper folding on the edges, it will give a nice rustic look to the tart, see my pic above). The baking paper will make it easy to take the baked crust out of the dish without breaking it.

With a fork, pierce a few holes across the pastry. This will reduce the risk of hot air bubbles forming under the crust while it is baking.

Bake for 20 to 25 mins or until golden on the edges. Check regularly your oven for air bubbles forming under the pastry. If you see one forming, pierce it with a fork. More traditionally, you can fill your pastry with dried beans before baking it to avoid bubbles from forming, but I can’t be bothered with the hassle. A bit of care during baking is all it takes, really.

When ready, take out of the oven and reserve. Unmould carefully once it has cooled down

Prepare the crème patissière (while the crust is baking):

Heat the milk and vanilla extract in a saucepan until boiling point. if you are using the 1/2 vanilla pod instead, slit the pod lengthwise and scrape the tiny seeds. Heat the milk with the seeds and pod, and remove the latter before pouring.

Beat the egg with the sugar in a bowl until the mixture looks really smooth and falls into ribbons (this basically means that a ribbon-like strip will rest on top of the egg mixture when you drop a dollop of it from your whisk or fork)

Add the flour and whisk until smooth.

Slowly pour the boiling milk onto the egg mixture, whisking constantly

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once the liquid starts boiling, remove from the heat. Keep stirring for one minute, the crème will keep thickening in the saucepan.

Pour the crème into the baked tart crust.

…and for the ultra-sexy finish:

Wash and cut the stem off the strawberries, and cut them in half lengthways, keeping one strawberry whole to place at the center of the tart.

Wipe the strawberries dry with a paper towel and place in concentric circles on the tart, starting with the edge, cut side down, each strawberry half slightly overlapping its neighbour.

In a small bowl, mix the jam with a teaspoon of water and heat for 20 seconds in your microwave. I indicated raspberry jam here but any jam that is smooth and not too dark will do. Smooth apricot jam, for instance, works very well.

Gently brush the mixture over the strawberries to give the tart that lovely, glossy finish.

C’est prêt!