At last tiny, intensely flavoured home-grown strawberries are starting to flood the market. Their flavour is intense, the texture firm but not hard; everything we want in a strawberry. Here’s a stunning way to serve them, piled over whipped cream on a sheet of puff pastry. This lazy pie can be any size or shape you like and can be tailored to your style and mood. Sometimes I line up the strawberries very neatly, other times it’s all a bit random. Either way, the tart is served with a swirl of raspberry puree. That’s the ripple.
Serves 6
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 20 min
320g ready rolled puff pastry (Jus-Rol)
flour for dusting
knob of butter
200g raspberries
1 tsp caster sugar
squeeze of lime
750g small ripe strawberries
300g thick cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
Heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the pastry to fit a liberally buttered baking sheet approximately 25x30cm. Prick the pastry all over with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes until brown and semi-risen. Use an egg slice to flip the pastry. Press down to flatten and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes until flaky and golden. Slip onto a cake rack to cool. For a professional finish, trim the edges with a long, sharp knife. Warm the raspberries in the oven’s residual heat for a couple of minutes then press through a sieve with a generous squeeze of lime and 1 tsp caster sugar. Rinse then hull the strawberries. Lightly whisk the cream with 1 tbsp sifted icing sugar and spread thickly over the pastry, going right up to the edges. Cover with strawberries, dribble with raspberry puree then dust the edges with icing sugar. Stand back for gasps of delight.