Strawberry Custard Phyllo Dough Tart in 30 minutes!

Nothing tastes better than a cream puff custard spread lavishly onto a flaky phyllo dough crust, topped with fresh, macerated strawberries. At least I think so :P. I served this tart at an event for young adults in my church community, and it was practically licked clean within minutes. And the great thing about it is how easy it is to make! From start to finish, this took me around 30 minutes to make. That said, my husband says that I am a really quick cook, but really there is not much work to this dish. 

Custard pastry filling brings me back to fond memories of cream puffs at the Japanese bazaars at our church, served from loving Japanese mothers (even though cream puffs originated in France), fundraising for their club events. I would buy a cream puff for 50 cents and take a little bite of the pastry, soon slurping out the custard and eating the rest of choux pastry in one bite. It's a taste of childhood, a taste of something familiar and comforting.

I recently discovered phyllo dough from a recipe my mother-in-law taught me for Greek spanakopita. Bought from the frozen section of any supermarket, these flaky, super-thin sheets are crispy and lightly buttery. I prefer them to to the thick and crunchy pastry crusts that are usually accompanied with tarts. Phyllo dough is light and flaky, and gives this tart a light feeling when eating it. Macerated strawberries are basically strawberries chopped up, with about a tablespoon of sugar mixed into them, to have them release some strawberry juice.

Strawberry Custard Phyllo Dough Tart

*Custard recipe is from deliciouseveryday.com

Ingredients: 

• Phyllo Dough (It comes frozen and needs to be defrosted)
• 1 package strawberries

Vanilla Pastry Cream:

• 6 egg yolks
• 150g (2/3 cups) sugar
• 70g (1/2) cup flour
• 2 cups milk
• 2-3 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1. Overlap two layers of phyllo dough sheets at a time at different angles over the pie plate. Use about 14 sheets. 

2. Microwave 2 tablespoons of butter until melted and pour over the phyllo dough sheets in pie plate. Place in oven at 350 degrees. 

3. Put the milk and vanilla extract in a pot and heat on medium heat until just below boiling point. 

4. Separately, use a mixer to mix the sugar, eggs, and flour together until completely combined.

5. After egg-sugar-flour mixture is combined, slowly add the hot milk to the egg-sugar-flour mixture. Gradually whisk the hot milk into egg mixture until all milk has been added and mixture is well combined. Gradually adding milk will minimize risk of eggs curdling. 

6.  Return the mixture to the saucepan over medium heat and cook, whisking constantly until mixture is thickened and glossy. Whisk out any lumps or strain through a mesh sieve if needed. Refrigerate until cool. 

7.  Chop up strawberries and put in bowl. Mix with 1 tablespoon sugar and let it rest until custard has cooled down. 

8. After phyllo dough is a golden brown color, remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Pour cooled custard onto phyllo crust, and top the custard with the macerated strawberries. 

Enjoy!!

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From my kitchen to yours, 

Kaori <3

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