A strawberry tart lives or dies on its crust, and this one is built entirely on Bordier's lemon-olive oil butter. The dough is Breton style: rolled thin, baked flat, brittle enough that you turn it out of the pan with both hands. Cold pastry cream goes on in a spiral, then the strawberries are laid in from the edge toward the middle. No glaze, no gelatin, nothing to hide behind. Bordier calls it advanced, and the difficulty is all in the handling. Plan on 30 minutes of preparation plus two hours of chilling.
At a glance
- Difficulty: Advanced
- Serves: 6
- Active time: 30 minutes, plus 2 hours chilling the dough and time to cool the custard
- Cook: Bordier states 30 minutes; the method itself asks for 10 to 15 minutes at 180°C / 350°F, which is all the oven time this tart needs
- Key ingredient: Bordier Lemon-Olive Oil Butter
Why this works
Bordier calls for strawberries from Plougastel, the peninsula in Finistère that has grown Brittany's best-known strawberries for close to three centuries. Any properly ripe, fragrant local strawberry will do the same job. What matters is that the fruit is raw, so its acidity has to be balanced by something other than more sugar. That is where the lemon-olive oil butter earns its place. Bordier made it in 2009 for a chef, working lemon-infused extra-virgin olive oil into hand-churned Breton butter, and the citrus in the crust meets the citrus note in the fruit while the olive oil adds a savory backbone under the pastry cream.
The Breton crust is the technical centerpiece. It lines only the bottom of the pan, never the sides, so there is no shell to blind-bake and no risk of slumping walls. In exchange, it is fragile. Rolling it thin, chilling the rolled disk a second time, and letting it cool completely before unmolding are the three steps that decide whether you get a crisp round or a pile of shards. Piping the custard cold and stopping 1 cm short of the rim keeps moisture off the edge, which is the part that softens first.
Ingredients
Bordier's quantities for a tart serving six, with US measures alongside.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Bordier lemon-olive oil butter | 225 g | 1 cup |
| Sugar, in two quantities | 200 g and 60 g | 7 oz and 4 tbsp |
| Egg yolks | 90 g | ⅓ cup |
| Whole eggs | 2 | 2 |
| Flour | 300 g | 10½ oz, about 2¼ cups |
| Salt | 5 g | A pinch |
| Baking powder | 12 g | 2½ tsp |
| Milk | 300 g | 10½ oz, about 1¼ cups |
| Heavy cream, at least 35% butterfat | 50 g | 1¾ oz, about 3½ tbsp |
| Corn starch | 20 g | 1⅓ tbsp |
| Plougastel strawberries | 500 g | 17½ oz |
| Fresh mint leaves, for finishing (optional) | A few | A few |
Method
Step 1: Make the crust dough
Knead the lemon-olive oil butter with the sugar. Work in the egg yolks until the mixture is even, then fold in the flour, salt and baking powder. Bring the dough together, roll it into a ball, wrap it in plastic and leave it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Step 2: Make the pastry cream
Scald the milk, then add the sugar and the cream, checking that the cream is at least 35% butterfat. Separately, beat the eggs, then whisk in the corn starch and the cold milk. As soon as the milk in the pan begins to simmer, pour the egg, corn starch and milk mixture into it slowly. Cover the custard with plastic wrap laid directly against its surface, touching it, and refrigerate.
Step 3: Roll and bake the crust
Roll the dough out as thinly as you can. Cut a disk the diameter of a greased straight-sided tart pan or baking ring. This is a Breton crust, so it covers the base of the pan only, not the sides. Heat the oven to 180°C / 350°F. Chill the rolled disk for 15 minutes, then bake it for 10 to 15 minutes, until it is as brown and crisp as you want. Let it cool, then turn it out of the mold carefully. It will be quite brittle.
Step 4: Fill and arrange the strawberries
Fill a piping bag fitted with a wide plain nozzle with the cold custard and pipe it over the crust in a spiral, leaving 1 cm / ¾ inch bare at the edge. Cut the strawberries into three pointed sections each and set them around the tart, starting at the outer edge and working toward the center. Bordier's own tip: finish with finely sliced fresh mint, which adds both freshness and another layer of flavor.
Tips from our kitchen
- Split the sugar before you begin. The original gives 200 g and 60 g on one line without assigning them. We put the 200 g in the crust with the butter and the 60 g in the custard with the hot milk. That is our reading rather than Bordier's instruction, so weigh them out separately first.
- Bake to color, not to the clock. The stated cook time of 30 minutes and the method's 10 to 15 minutes do not agree. Trust the method: pull the crust when it is evenly golden and smells nutty. A thin Breton crust goes from pale to too dark quickly.
- Cool the crust completely in the pan. Warm, it will snap when you lift it. Ten minutes of patience saves the tart.
- Do not wash the strawberries after hulling. Rinse them whole, dry them well, and hull them last. Water in the fruit will bleed into the pastry cream within the hour.
- Keep the butter cool while you knead. Around 16°C / 60°F. If it turns greasy the dough will spread in the oven and bake tough instead of short.
- Assemble within two hours of serving. There is no glaze protecting anything here, so the crust softens under the custard as it stands.
How to serve it
Cut it at the table with a sharp, thin-bladed knife and accept that the first slice will not come out cleanly. It needs nothing alongside beyond coffee or a glass of something cold and lightly sweet. If you like this crust, the same dough carries roasted fruit beautifully in our apricot and pistachio tart with Bordier lemon-olive oil butter, which uses pistachio pastry cream instead of plain.
Where to buy Bordier Lemon-Olive Oil Butter in the US
The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.
- Churned Lemon-Olive Oil Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): hand-churned butter worked with lemon-infused extra-virgin olive oil, created for a chef in 2009.
The rest of the range is in the Maison Bordier collection.
Frequently asked questions
How much Bordier butter do I need to buy?
Our blocks are 4.4 oz / 125 g. This tart uses 225 g, so buy two blocks and you will have roughly 25 g left over.
Can I use a different Bordier butter?
Yuzu butter is the nearest match and keeps the citrus edge. Madagascar vanilla butter makes a sweeter, more classic strawberry tart. Unsalted butter gives you a clean Breton crust if you would rather the fruit stand alone.
I cannot get Plougastel strawberries. What should I use?
Any ripe, fragrant strawberry at the peak of its local season. Choose smaller berries with real perfume over large, pale, out-of-season ones, since there is nothing in this tart to mask a bland strawberry.
How should I store the butter?
Wrapped, in the refrigerator, and used within about two weeks of opening. It freezes well for a few months if tightly wrapped. Keep it away from strong-smelling foods, because butter absorbs odors readily.
Does Bordier butter need refrigeration?
Yes. Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold. Refrigerate it as soon as it arrives and take out only what you are about to use.
Can I make any of it ahead?
The dough holds two days wrapped in the refrigerator and the custard holds two days with plastic pressed to its surface. Bake the crust, pipe and arrange on the day.
Related reading
- Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
- How to Choose Your French Butter: A Buyer's Guide
- Isigny Sainte-Mère: Normandy's AOP Butter & Crème Guide
Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.