TWD: Quick Classic Berry Tart

For this TWD-week Cristine of Cooking with Cristine picked the Quick Classic Berry Tart - go to her page or have a look at Dorie's book on page 377 for the recipe.

This was a great choice for the first weeks of May. I opted for a pure strawberry tart because I found some really good tasting ones (which is not that easy...).

I had the feeling that this classic tart as you see it on the left could use some more colour besides the vanilla of the pastry cream (I used vanilla milk instead of ordinary whole milk, so my pastry cream was alreayd very, very vanilla-coloured), and the red of the strawberries and the strawberry-glazé.
First I thought pistacchios, but I ran out. And then my look fell on the basil at my kitchen sill. Strawberries naturally match with savory tastes like red pepper or chilis in chocolate, or old Balsamico (or a Balsamico reduction) on the plain fruits. And I am generally a big fan of combining sweet and savory.
So I candied some basil leaves to sprinkle them over the finished tart, and mixed the glazé with a tiny little bit of Balsamico.

I love this tart!
My crust didn't burn for the first time (it was a bit dark, but still alright - but I made a nut crust, so it should be darker than a normal one), I managed to handle the pastry cream, and the final product did look well. Usually, nobody complains about the taste when I bake, but the looks of my desserts are improvable.

Here, it turned out exactly as I intended it.
Honestly spoken, I am pretty proud on me. :o]

 

(and, most importantly, my co-workers and me were excited, excited, excited about it)

P.S.: For candying basil it is better not to use the usual sugar-water-mix as for fruits - this might be too heavy. It's better to first put the leaves in egg-whites and then sprinkle it with sugar, as you do with edible flowers.