Lost ideas and strawberries

Don't you just hate it when a great idea comes to you late at night as you lay in bed and by morning it's gone? No matter how hard you try to remember the stuff, by the time you open your eyes in the morning and take your mascara-stained sleeping mask off the genius idea is gone.


I am mentioning this cos it happened to me last night you see. It was late, my husband was asleep and I started thinking about language, not sure what particular problem I was trying to solve. I think it had to do with a distinction made in French but not in English. I was sleepy but the mind was still going strong, no doubt a side effect of the 4 pints of coffee I enjoyed yesterday. All I can remember after that is finding the answer I was looking for, feeling relieved and telling myself it was the best idea I had had in a while. Note to brain: please don't let me forget I came up with this cos it's pure forward thinking. Next thing I know my little French brain decided to rain on my parade and reminded me that I don't get to choose what I get to remember. How rude!
I tried to think back about it in English, then in French- cos us foreigners might not be able to pronounce Fitzgerald right but our wiring up there is binary branching - but simply nothing, tabula rasa.
I tell myself that maybe it was never a great idea, just a few neurons firing louder and brighter than usual.

My brain might be failing me but there is one memory that is here to stay: the smell, colour and taste of a French strawberry tart, like my beloved grandma used to make. Spring is here, I haven't visited France since Christmas so I decided to invite the Norman countryside to Gateshead by making a sablé strawberry tart with creme patissiere.

And again I can't rotate the picture...

The tart is pretty straight forward but takes a while cos the pastry needs to go in the fridge for about an hour before being baked and the creme patissiere needs to be used cold. The time spent is well worth it though cos it is absolutely divine. Please note that this is not to be consumed if you're on Weight Watchers!

For the pastry:
250 g of plain flour
150 g of butter
pinch of salt
75 g of icing sugar
1 egg
vanilla extract 

For the creme patissiere:  
120 g of caster sugar
35 g of cornflour
3 yolks
250 ml of milk
almond extract

I brushed the strawberries with a bit of warm red currant jelly to give them a glossy finish and extra sweetness. It's got that rustic look that I am so familiar with and love to recreate when I long for home.