Strawberry Tart

Every Saturday I'm my Mothers sous-teacher at Chamo Estudio and last Saturday one of my lovely students brought me a pound of strawberries. I wanted to eat them on the spot they looked delicious! But then remembered about a recipe I had seen on Smitten Kitchen, so I searched within for self-control and I left them alone. 

Sunday came and so did the waffles I had craved for the whole week, they had fresh strawberry marmalade on them, I was halfway done when I remembered about my tart and how I need 2-3 cups of strawberries!

But never mind I would worry about that later. I finished my waffles and FaceTimed with my boyfriend most part of the morning. After that I was ready to begin! Went straight to the kitchen, took all the ingredients out and my mom was already there, perfect (she is always happy to give me pointers and correct my wrongs).

I started with the sweet tart dough/pate sucree as it needs four long hours on the refrigerator prior rolling and baking. With my moms help it was ready in no time and if I may add, it came out perfectly. After that we went to the porch to enjoy the remaining of the morning, she was making some necklaces, I was rereading the pastry cream recipe, making sure I had understood everything perfectly, then I started working. I was surprised at how easy it is to make! I just love the feeling of accomplishment I get when my batches come out the way they are supposed to! When I finished it was lunch time and there really wasn't any more to do but wait for the dough to be thoroughly chilled so mom and I started fixing up Hamburgers, yum. We ate them on the porch with the foliage of the woods eavesdropping on us as we always do on Sundays. I remembered how my mom had used the strawberries for breakfast and she said, "Lets take a walk and go buy some!" Yes! I was ecstatic (not remembering that it was a 5 km walk she was referring to) we convinced my father to come with us and even brought along Bruno, my handsome Chihuahua. A family walk.

An hour later I had all the strawberries I needed for my start! The tart shell was rolled and baked (you won't imagine the joy I felt when it came out perfectly clean out of my new pie mold) while it was chilling on the counter, I started grooming the strawberries and when they were ready I placed the pastry cream onto my tart shell and arranged the beautiful 5km worth of strawberries on top.

I think it's the best tart I've ever made and the reason behind it is that a lot of people help me in way, starting with the strawberries I got from my student, then with the loving help of mom and the family walk we had and even my brother and my boyfriend who live outside the country but always request photographic evidence of whatever I'm making, contributed. All of them infused love into the tart and made it utterly delicious.