Scottish Strawberry Tarts
When it comes to summer baking treats, is there anything better than a Scottish strawberry tart?
File this recipe under, “bakes I thought were global but are actually really Scottish.”
That list is continually growing. But I think that’s part of growing up somewhere constant, and just never realising otherwise; assuming what you’ve always known is that everyone in the world has also known.
Now, of course, you will get strawberry tarts outside of Scotland. In fact, there are many variations depending on where you are in the world. But these strawberry tarts are the kind you will find in bakeries and supermarkets all over Scotland. The rows of these little individual strawberry tarts in the windows of your High Street bakery is a signal that summer has arrived!
And Scottish strawberries are more delicious than any other strawberries in the world. FACT! If you have never tried one, you must; they are the most strawberry-tasting strawberries you will ever taste.
Save this recipe for when you see your first punnet of Scottish strawberries at the supermarket in the coming weeks – you can thank me later!
Tips for homemade Scottish Strawberry Tarts:
• If you don’t have baking beans already, this is one recipe that is worth investing in them for. And when it comes to baking the pastry with the baking beans, a good hack is to place a cupcake case into the pastry and fill it with the beans. Not lining the pastry before adding the beans will be a trypophobe’s nightmare, not to mention a pain to get them back out of the pastry.
• Short on time? You can make your pastry ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. Or simply use a ready-roll shortcrust pastry.
• Struggle with whipping cream? The recipe states double cream, but if you have trouble getting cream to the right consistency, use whipping cream instead – it’s a bit more forgiving. And stop whipping right before you think you’ve whipped it enough, it will continue to thicken a little more.
• You want decent-sized strawberries for your tarts. Not too big, though, or all your sauce will roll right down off them, and down the sides of your pastry.
• If you don’t want to spend the time making the strawberry sauce, you can use a strawberry syrup intended for ice cream, some watered-down strawberry jam, or some Scottish companies like Castleton Farm do make their very own strawberry glazing jelly, specifically for use on Scottish strawberry tarts.
Ingredients for homemade Strawberry Tarts:
Butter
These little homemade Strawberry Tarts simply wouldn’t work without their shortcrust pastry casing. Butter will give you the richest tasting pastry, but margarine is also an option, should you prefer. Just be sure to use a block of margarine, as opposed to the spreadable kind – the latter will make your pastry too soft and difficult to work with.
Sugar
Not necessarily essential in a shortcrust pastry, but when you’re making a pastry for a sweet tart, it makes sense to start with a sweetened pastry, right?
Flour
Plain flour for a shortcrust pastry because we don’t want it rising and taking away any of the precious room for fillings.
Strawberry Sauce
My strawberry tarts recipe includes instructions to make your own fresh strawberry tart sauce. It’s super easy and only requires a few more ingredients – strawberry, sugar, corn flour and a little water. You mix the cornflour and water to make a slurry – this helps thicken the sauce without having to boil it for ages. Then you simply pop all the ingredients into a pan and boil, then simmer. You’re looking at about 20 minutes in total.
This is a great way to use strawberries that are a little past their best, too. No one will know they were a little squishy once they’ve been macerated into a sweet sauce.
Double Cream
When Granny made Strawberry Tarts in the bakery, they used what was known as synthetic cream (sometimes known as mock cream). This isn’t something you can pick up in the supermarkets, although some online retailers do stock it, and there are some recipes online that you should try if you want to keep it authentic.
However, whipping up some double cream is a much more natural substitute, not to mention absolutely delicious. The only thing you need to watch for when using fresh cream is storing the strawberry tarts in the fridge and not keeping them longer than a couple of days, although I guarantee you’ll have them all eaten before then! But should you wish to keep them a little longer, simply swap the fresh cream for a buttercream.
Strawberries
You’ll need a punnet of strawberries for making the strawberry sauce, but you will also need 12 decent-sized strawberries too – one for each tart. You want them to be medium-large, not too big and not too small. If you can’t get decent-sized strawberries, you could always use 2-3 smaller ones in their place.
Scottish Strawberry Tarts
INGREDIENTS
For the Pastry:
- 175 g Butter or Block Margarine at room temperature
- 65 g Caster Sugar (Superfine Sugar)
- 250 g Plain Flour (All-purpose Flour)
For the Strawberry Sauce:
- 250 g Strawberries hulled & halved
- 100 g Caster Sugar (Superfine Sugar)
- 50 ml Water
- 1 tbsp Corn Flour (Corn Starch)
For the Filling:
- 300 ml Double Cream (Heavy Cream)
- 12 medium-large Strawberries hulled
INSTRUCTIONS
For the Pastry:
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter/margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift in the flour and mix to create a soft dough, using your hands to bring it together when necessary. Gently knead the dough on a clean surface to ensure it is completely combined, before wrapping the dough in cling film and placing in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up a little.This is a good time to prepare the Strawberry Sauce (instructions below).
- Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to 180°c (160°c for fan assisted ovens, Gas Mark 4 and 350°F). After 30 minutes, remove your dough from the fridge. Grease a 12-hole cup bun tray with a little butter/margarine and set aside.
- Roll your dough to about 5mm thick and using a round cutter which is a little bigger than the cups on your bun tray, cut 12 circles. Carefully transfer each circle to your pre-greased tray, gently ensuring no air is caught underneath each and pressing the bottom and edges into place.
- Prick a few holes into the bottom of each pastry cup, before lining them (I used a paper cupcake case for lining) and filling with some baking beans. Bake for about 15 minutes, remove the baking beans and bake for a further 5 minutes, until the pastry cases are golden in colour. Allow to cool completely before adding the fillings.
For the Strawberry Sauce:
- Place the strawberries and sugar into a large pan. Whisk the water and cornflour together in a cup/bowl to create a slurry, then add to the pan too. Bring the mixture to a boil, before reducing to a simmer. Allow the mix to simmer for about 20 minutes, until the strawberries have macerated and are falling apart.
- Allow your strawberry mixture to cool a little, before straining it through a sieve into a bowl; to remove the pulp and seeds. Let your sauce cool completely before using. If you find your sauce is a little thick when it comes to using, simply add a little boiling water to thin it out.
For the Filling & Finish:
- In a large bowl, whip you cream until you have medium-stiff peaks. Add a spoonful of cream to the bottom of each pastry casing.
- Place a strawberry on top of the cream in each pastry casing, before spooning a little strawberry sauce of the top of the strawberries, allowing it to drizzle down onto the cream below. Repeat with all the other tarts.
- Transfer your finished tarts to the fridge to allow the sauce to set a little. Keep in the fridge until serving.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
All my recipes are developed using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and millilitres). Cup measurements are available as a conversion but these, unfortunately, won’t always be as accurate. For best results, I always recommend baking with a digital scale.
RECIPE NOTES:
- You can use a ready-roll pastry for your strawberry tarts if you wish – simply start the recipe from step 2.
- Some Scottish food producers do offer a ready-made strawberry tart sauce/glaze, if you’d prefer to use that. Alternatively a strawberry ice cream sauce could also be used, or a watered down jam.
- If you struggle getting the right consistency when whipping double cream, use whipping cream instead.
- Due to the fresh cream, store your finished strawberry tarts in the fridge and eat within 48 hours.
Scottish strawberry tarts are delicious little pastry casings, filled with a generous dollop of fresh whipped cream, topped with a decent-sized strawberry, and finished with a drizzling of strawberry sauce to seal it all in.
Whereas you will get strawberry tarts all over the world, here in Scotland we like ours in individual portions, with the ability to eat them on the go!
Don’t let their dazzling, show-stopping appearance fool you… Strawberry tarts are actually quite simple to make.
You’ll start by preparing your pastry cases. This recipe has step-by-step instructions to make fresh shortcrust pastry, but you can of course use a pre-made ready roll pastry too.
Then you make your sauce, glaze, jelly…whatever you want to call it! This is again really simple, but you can cheat on this step too – just take a look at Granny’s Top Tips below.
Next, you will whip up your fresh cream before finally assembling it all together. Pastry case, a dollop of cream, a strawberry on top, and a drizzle of the sticky sauce to finish. And repeat.
The hardest step is judging just how much strawberry sauce is the right amount – your first tarts will probably have too much or too little, it’s all about trial and error.
Absolutely! You can use a ready-roll shortcrust pastry to make these individual strawberry tarts. In fact, you could even use pre-made pastry shells if you really want to make life easier.
And if you want to make gluten-free strawberry tarts, you could use a gluten-free ready-roll shortcrust pastry for ease.
My recipe for Scottish Strawberry Tarts includes a super-easy, one-pan recipe for strawberry tart jelly/jam/sauce. There are a few Scottish food producers that sell their own strawberry tart sauce, but this is generally quite seasonal and not as easy to get hold of outside Scotland.
See my tips above for some ideas for strawberry sauce alternatives if you want to skip making your own.
Free-from & Vegan:
Gluten-free: For ease, to make this a gluten-free strawberry tarts recipe, simply swap out the pastry for a gluten-free shortcrust pastry. The recipe for the strawberry sauce is also gluten-free, but be careful to check the ingredients on any other ready-made strawberry sauce option.
Nut-free: No nuts are used in this recipe, making it a nut-free strawberry tarts recipe. But be sure to double-check your ingredients individually to check for hidden nuts.
Egg-free: No eggs are used in this recipe, making it an egg-free strawberry tarts recipe. But be sure to double-check your ingredients individually to check for hidden eggs.
Dairy-free: To make these as dairy-free strawberry tarts, simply use a dairy-free block margarine in the pastry, and swap the cream for the filling with a dairy-free alternative, such as vegan cream or coconut cream.
Vegan: To make these into vegan strawberry tarts, simply follow the dairy-free options above.
N.B. Any advice or suggestions to make recipes “free-from” or vegan are purely that – suggestions. Please be careful to double-check all ingredients individually, taking extra caution when serving to those with allergies & intolerances.
For more info on common food allergies, please see food.gov.uk | For more info on coeliac disease, please see coeliac.org.uk | For more info on a vegan diet, please see vegansociety.com
