It's an open secret that I'm an avid strawberry lover; a fact that is made apparent with my experiments with strawberry desserts. Here's another to add to my list of kitchen endeavors - strawberry tarts!

These tarts smelt so good when they were fresh from the oven. It was torture to have to wait for them to cool before I could remove them from the baking tray. The little glutton in me was screaming for a bite! 

These tarts were a delight to dig into. My sister was so surprised, that with a slip of her tongue, she went, "Wow. It's really a tart."hahaha. My reply was, "Of course it's a tart!" 

However, I would use more strawberries in the future to increase the strawberries to tart ratio. I would also try making one huge tart instead of mini-ones (because those just look so gooooood). 

STRAWBERRY TARTS
Adapted from Ochikeron

Time: 3hrs
Number of servings: 6

Ingredients
[For Crust]
60g (2.1oz.) unsalted butter (softened)
30g (1.0oz.) powder sugar (or sugar substitute)
1 egg yolk
100g (3.5oz.) cake flour

[For Filling]
40g (1.4oz.) unsalted butter (softened)
30g (1.0oz.) powder sugar (or sugar substitute)
1 egg
1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
40g (1.4oz.) almond powder (ground almonds)
a few drops vanilla extract

[For Syrup]
20g (0.7oz.) powder sugar (or sugar substitute)
20ml hot water
a bit of white wine *optional

[For Decoration]
80g (2.8oz.) sugar-free fresh jam
fresh strawberries

Directions
[For Crust]
1. Cream the butter in a large bowl with a wire whisk. Add sugar substitute or powder sugar, egg yolk, and mix well.
2. Sift in flour and fold in with a spatula. At the beginning, it becomes like Parmesan cheese. Then after a while, it comes together, so mix with patience.
3. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate the crust for at least 1 hour to chill.

[For Filling]
1. Cream the butter in a large bowl with a wire whisk. Add sugar substitute or powder sugar, egg, cornstarch, almond powder, white wine (if you like), and mix well.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
3. Roll out crust between two pieces of plastic wrap to 4mm (just over 1/8") thick.
4. Cut out round pieces and press down into muffin tray. Lightly prick the bottom of the crust with a fork.
5. Fill the almond filling and smooth the top. Bake at 180C (350F) for 20 minutes until lightly browned.
6. Place the tray on the wire rack to cool.

[For Syrup]
1. Mix sugar substitute or granulated sugar, hot water, and white wine if you like.

[For Decoration]
1. Strain jam to remove any large clumps.
2. Wash, hull, and slice the strawberries.
3. When the tarts are completely cool, remove from the tray and gently brush the top with syrup and jam.
4. Place the strawberries as you like.
5. Mix the remaining jam and a bit of syrup to thin down the jam. Using a pastry brush, coat strawberries with jam to give a shine.