I mentioned in yesterday's post about a sweet treat I made involving strawberries and chocolate, but it needed to rest in the refrigerator first before we snapped a couple photos. Because of the time involved with chilling, I would suggest making this Strawberry-Chocolate Tart a day before you want to serve it, unless you make it early enough in the day.
The cookie-like crust for this tart comes together in a snap - it is simply made from rolled oats, granulated sugar and salt that are mixed in a food processor until the oats are finely ground. Chilled chunks of butter are added and after a couple tablespoons of icy water, the crust came together in no time. The best part of this dough? No rolling it out! You just scoop it into the bottom of a tart pan and use your hands to easily mash it over the bottom and up the sides.Since the filling is cooked in a saucepan, the crust does need to be fully baked before being filled.
The ultra-smooth custard filling is made from milk, sugar, Dutch-processed cocoa powder for a smooth chocolate flavor and cornstarch to thicken the mixture. A splash of vanilla and a handful of bittersweet chocolate chunks are added off-heat and stirred into the mix until the chocolate disperses into the filling. After filling the crisp golden crust, a layer of beautiful sweet strawberries are assembled over the dark slick of rich chocolate custard. The filling needs as much time in the refrigerator that you can give it - this allows the filling to set up correctly so your sliced tart pieces will be clean and hold up well.
My only concern is after the 8 hours in the refrigerator, the bottom crust was not as crisp as the sides were - I wonder if you gave the crust a quick brush with a beaten egg white, before baking, would be enough to protect it and prevent the softening. Soft crust or not, this was completely swoon-worthy for being a fairly light recipe - just be sure to use the best strawberries you can get your hands on. We ended up going to a local u-pick farm and picked a couple baskets worth for ours - because you know... while we were assembling it went something like one for the tart, two for me!