Speedy strawberry tarts

No-Bake Speedy Strawberry Tarts 

Nowadays, both ready-made all butter short-crust and cater quality pastry shells are easy to come by and make an excellent shortcut when you don’t want to spend your time in a hot kitchen. Fill with vanilla spiked creme fraiche and sweet sliced strawberries for delightful fruit tarts all summer long.

For 6

6x all-butter ready-made pastry cases

180ml/12tablespoons Crème D’isigny crème fraiche

1TBSP maple syrup

1tsp vanilla bean paste or scrape the beans from a vanilla pod

Zest of ½ small orange

6 fat or 12 medium strawberries sliced from pointed-end to stalk

To make the filling

In a bowl, mix together the creme fraiche, vanilla paste, maple syrup and orange zest.

Using a small, sharp pairing knife slice off the green stalk at the top of each strawberry. On a chopping board, cut each strawberry into 5 slices lengthways, from top to bottom.  Set to one side in little piles. Pat the fruit with kitchen paper if really juicy.

To assemble

Use two tablespoons of crème fraiche to fill each pastry case. Tease the filling towards the edge of the tartlets, gently smoothing with the back of a teaspoon. Fan the strawberry slices to one side of each tartlet.