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Sweet Summer: Strawberry White Balsamic Caramel Tarts

Jul 29 by Anita 19 Comments

Strawberry Tart with Balsamic Caramel

Deep in the heart of summer, and we can’t get enough of sweet ripe fruit around here. My daughter Isabelle would live on fruit if she could; it’s been a trial to coax her to eat her dinner when she keeps insisting that she only wants to eat blueberries and strawberries and mango.

How can I blame her, though? When you’re hot and sticky from running around outside blowing bubbles all afternoon, and the kitchen is filled with a bunch of fruit from the grocery store run earlier in the day, a big bowl of berries certainly seems more appetizing than a big heavy dinner.

Strawberry Balsamic Tarts

Isabelle can’t get enough of strawberries, but I managed to keep a few baskets hidden away from her long enough to put together these summery tarts. They’re a bit of a riff on strawberries dipped in cream and brown sugar: buttery brown sugar tart shells filled with billows of whipped cream, and topped with fresh strawberries.

Tart Shells filled with Caramel

The final, secret ingredient in this tart is a layer of white balsamic vinegar-laced caramel at the bottom of the tart. Strawberries and balsamic isn’t a new combination, but instead of glazing the strawberries themselves with balsamic vinegar, I wanted to have the balsamic caramel as a separate element, so you could have the experience of swirling all the different flavors and textures together: the ripe fruit, the silky cream, and the tangy caramel. I also wanted to keep the strawberries looking as fresh as possible in the presentation, which is why I didn’t cover them in caramel.

What’s the difference between white balsamic vinegar and regular balsamic vinegar? Balsamic vinegar is made from the pressings of white Trebbiano grapes from Italy. Regular dark balsamic vinegar is cooked until it caramelizes and becomes dark and concentrated, and is often aged for several years. White balsamic vinegar is only cooked for a short period of time so it doesn’t darken. It’s generally less sweet and syrupy than regular balsamic, and of course doesn’t add any dark coloring to your dish. Both white or dark balsamic vinegar can be used to make this caramel; I picked white because I wanted more of the tart, acid vinegar notes to contrast with the already-sweet and syrupy caramel, but whichever you pick will work fine.

Strawberry Balsamic Tarts

The tart dough I used for the shells is a favorite of mine from Deborah Madison’s Seasonal Fruit Desserts (an indispensable source of inspiration for making the most of fruits throughout the year). It’s a treasure of a recipe to have in your back pocket: it can be made in a food processor, requires no chilling or rolling, yet bakes up wonderfully light and flaky, and delightfully rich and buttery. You’ve no excuse not to make a tart with a no-fail tart dough recipe like this one. The strawberries are the icing on top – or shall we say better than icing on top?

Strawberry Balsamic Tart cut

I have to admit that Isabelle probably takes after her mommy since I can’t ever get enough of strawberries either, so it’s notsurprising that making these tarts was a happy afternoon’s work for me – and they didn’t last too long afterwards either. Baking and enjoying these tarts all in a golden afternoon kind of encapsulates summer for me: the pleasures are intensely sweet and fleetingly ephemeral, but there’s always the promise of tomorrow, and new joys to discover from summer’s endless bounty of delights.

Strawberry Balsamic Tart

Strawberry White Balsamic Caramel Tarts
 
Print
Recipe type: tart
Cuisine: pastry
Serves: (6) 4" round tarts
Ingredients
Tart Dough
  • 1 cup(125 g) all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 8 tablespoons (110 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces
  • 1 tablespoon cold water
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon almond extract
Caramel
  • 1 cup sugar
  • ½ cup whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
Strawberry and Cream Filling
  • 1 cup (230 g) whipping cream
  • 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 lb strawberries
Instructions
For the tart dough:
  1. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a food processor. Pulse to combine.
  2. Add in butter and pulse until butter is in pea-sized pieces.
  3. Combine water, vanilla, and almond extract and drizzle over the mixture. Pulse to combine until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs – it should not be fully combined into a ball.
  4. Turn out mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and form into a disk about 1 inch thick. If you have trouble making it stick together add a few more drops of water.
  5. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently press and form into the bottoms and sides of six 4" round tart tins with removable bottoms.
  6. Chill tart tins in refrigerator while preheating the oven to 375 degrees F.
  7. Line the dough with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake tart shells for 15 to 20 minutes.
  8. Remove the foil and bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes more.
  9. Remove tart shells from oven and let cool. Make the caramel while they are cooling.
For the caramel:
  1. Combine sugar and ¼ cup water in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat.
  2. Meanwhile, bring the cream to a simmer in separate small saucepan, stirring to combine. Turn heat to low and keep warm.
  3. Continue cooking until sugar mixture is dark amber, about 6-8 minutes. Do not let the mixture burn!
  4. Remove from heat and add the cream slowly; mixture will bubble up furiously and settle down. Stir to combine. Add in butter and stir until melted and incorporated.
  5. Remove from heat and stir in the balsamic vinegar.
  6. Let cool to room temperature before using.
For the filling:
  1. Combine cream, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla extract in bowl of a stand mixer. Whip just to soft peaks.
  2. Wash and hull strawberries. Slice vertically into ¼" thick slices.
  3. To finish the tarts, pour some caramel into the bottoms of the tart shells. Fill with the whipped cream. Arrange strawberry slices in circles on top of the whipped cream. Serve immediately, or keep refrigerated and covered for up to three days.
3.3.3070

Filed Under: Recipes, Tarts Tagged With: balsamic, caramel, cream, fruit, seasonal fruit desserts, strawberry, summer, tart

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Comments

  1. 1

    June @ How to Philosophize with Cake says

    Jul 29 at 7:54 am

    What gorgeous tarts! The balsamic caramel sounds amazing 🙂 Love the strawberry + balsamic combo!

    Reply
  2. 2

    Martha @ A Family Feast says

    Jul 29 at 9:29 am

    What a gorgeous dessert – and adding white balsamic vinegar to the caramel sauce sounds so interesting!

    Reply
  3. 3

    Heather (Delicious Not Gorgeous) says

    Jul 29 at 9:38 am

    i was in when you talked about isabelle only wanting to eat fruit (that was and continues to be me), and then the idea of strawberries and cream (my family always did sour cream) and brown sugar in tart form with caramel? might have to bake up a batch aof tart crust tonight when it cools down.

    Reply
  4. 4

    Lucy says

    Jul 29 at 10:07 am

    These look gorgeous! Strawberries and caramel are such an unexpected, delicious combination.

    Reply
  5. 5

    Lindsay @Artsy-Fartsy Mama says

    Jul 29 at 10:59 am

    This sounds amazing and your pictures are gorgeous!! Thanks for sharing your recipe.

    Reply
  6. 6

    Ashley @ Wishes & Dishes says

    Jul 29 at 11:45 am

    These are absolutely gorgeous!! I can’t get enough of strawberries lately, either!

    Reply
  7. 7

    Lauren kelly Nutrition says

    Jul 29 at 12:03 pm

    Wow these look delicious and they are pretty too 🙂

    Reply
  8. 8

    [email protected] says

    Jul 29 at 12:12 pm

    I love the addition of the caramel surprise at the bottom!

    Reply
  9. 9

    Stephanie says

    Jul 29 at 12:14 pm

    Oh my! How gorgeous are these!! What a pretty dessert!

    Reply
  10. 10

    Lauren says

    Jul 29 at 12:55 pm

    These look amazing! I would have to hide the strawberries from my littles, too- but I think it would be worth it! And thanks for explaining the difference between white and regular balsamic vinegar- I had no idea.

    Reply
  11. 11

    The Food Hunter says

    Jul 29 at 2:59 pm

    I’m drooling over the balsamic caramel!

    Reply
  12. 12

    Kim - Liv Life says

    Jul 29 at 6:00 pm

    Spectacular photography!! And that recipe?? Oh my heavens!! My family can’t eat dairy, but I can. So… if I didn’t make them dairy-free, I’d have a whole batch to myself. Not sure that’s what a “nice mom” would do, but I’m so tempted. Just gorgeous!

    Reply
  13. 13

    Erin @ Texanerin Baking says

    Jul 30 at 6:38 am

    I’d live on fruit, too, if I could! And wow. I love every component of this!

    Reply
  14. 14

    sudhakar says

    Jul 30 at 12:53 pm

    Great pictures. I bet this tastes amazing.

    Reply
  15. 15

    Paula - bell'alimento says

    Jul 30 at 1:04 pm

    These are some seriously stunning tarts! They wouldn’t stand a chance around me, they’d be gone in 2.5 seconds 😉

    Reply
  16. 16

    Marjory @ Dinner-Mom says

    Jul 30 at 6:50 pm

    Such a beautiful tart! Love that pool of caramel on the bottom!

    Reply
  17. 17

    heather | girlichef says

    Jul 30 at 6:55 pm

    It’s really hard to get angry when your kids want to eat only fruit, isn’t it? There are so many worse things, LOL. These tarts look amazing, but I want that caramel sauce in my life immediately!

    Reply
  18. 18

    Sarah Walker Caron (Sarah's Cucina Bella) says

    Aug 1 at 1:12 pm

    Isabelle has it right with wanting fruit, I think! And these tarts — Oh. Wow. They sound and look incredible. That layer of caramel in particular looks TDF.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Strawberry Vanilla Chamomile Tart - Dessert First says:
    Aug 20 at 7:51 pm

    […] tart crust is a crisp, crumbly, no-roll, press-in style that’s quite similar to the tart crusts I’ve been favoring for a while now. It goes well with the cream-and-fruit French tarts that I […]

    Reply

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about pastrygirl

Anita Chu, also known as pastrygirl, is a baker, writer, and photographer with a passion for pastry. She trained at Tante Marie's Cooking School and is the author of Field Guide to Cookies, Field Guide to Candy, and Lollipop Love. Anita lives in San Francisco with her husband, baby girl, and rescue cockapoo Snickerdoodle. More about pastrygirl

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