Strawberry Summerocalypse Tart

Welcome summer! I think.

Me and pastry have only ever made fleeting eye contact with each other across a crowded bar and never actually gone on a date. Which is a shame, because I think pie is the perfect dessert. So my fall resolution is to learn more about it, make it, eat it. However, the likelihood of me ever making puff pastry is about the same as me ever setting foot in Florida. Like, why spend 5 days making puff when you can buy some pre-rolled stuff at Dominion? Similarly, why not choose some other tropical destination? I don’t know, maybe one with reproductive rights for women, no guns, and where you’re allowed to read books and say the word gay?

Speaking of Florida, we are basically our own humid cesspool right now, and have gone straight from Juneuary to a terrifying vision of our future. But goddamn, the strawberries down the road at Lester’s are perfect.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart

Adapted from Melissa Clark’s recipe, New York Times Cooking Subscription

For the berries:

1 ½ pounds fresh strawberries, trimmed and halved or quartered if large
¼ cup/50 grams granulated sugar
¼ tsp fine sea salt

For the tart:

½ cup plus 1 heaping tbsp cream cheese, softened
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
¾ tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1 10-inch x 10-inch sheet pre-rolled puff pastry (I used PC brand)

Heat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium saucepan, combine strawberries, sugar and salt. Let mixture sit for 20 minutes, tossing once or twice, until the berries get a little juicy. Turn the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are beginning to soften and the sugar dissolves, about 5-7 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer berries to a plate to cool. Bring syrup to a simmer and let it cook until it reduces by half, 3 to 7 minutes.

In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, egg yolk, sugar, lemon juice and zest, vanilla and salt until smooth. (It’s okay if there are a few small lumps of cream cheese.)

Unroll the thawed pastry and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. With a sharp knife, score a half-inch border along the edges of the puff pastry, being careful not to cut all the way through.

Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly inside the scored border. If the berries have released a lot of juice whole cooling, drain them with a fine-mesh sieve, being careful to collect the remaining juice to add to the syrup, and heat the syrup again to thicken again if necessary. Arrange the berries on top in a single layer. Don’t stress if it looks messy and some of them overlap.

Bake on the lower rack of your oven for 10 minutes, then transfer to the middle rack and bake for another 15- 20, until the pastry is puffed and golden. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for at least 20 minutes. Right before serving, gently brush some of the reduced syrup over the berries to add shine and extra flavour. It’s fine left at room temperature for a few hours or overnight, but transfer to the fridge after that.

(It's good cold, for breakfast. With an espresso.)

Two things: don’t be afraid of the salt in the berries and cream cheese. A little salt makes the sweet…better (trust Melissa, she is a flavour queen). Try a good pinch of salt the next time you make jam, and you won’t look back. Just don’t use table salt, use fine sea salt or kosher. That’s not salt snobbery, that’s science. A teaspoon of table salt and teaspoon of kosher salt will give you vastly different results; I found out the hard way a couple years back and ruined a very expensive batch of homemade ice cream. And hey, if you are a salt snob, and pink Himalayan salt on your countertop brings you joy, the world is on fire and the small joys are EVERYTHING so fill your fucking boots, my friend. Secondly, unless you’ve drowned your tart, you should end up with some out-of-this-world homemade strawberry syrup. Good for mixing in plain fizzy water, to replace the simple syrup in your favourite cocktail or lemonade, or drizzle it on some yogurt or an ice cream sundae.

Happy Summerocalypse, chickens! It’ll only get worse from here! At least we can read whatever books we like. For now, anyway. Stay cool, stay hydrated, stay sane. It’ll be stew season in a blink.  Xoxo