Classic French Strawberry Tartlets

In a mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, and salt.

Add the cold, cubed butter. Cut it into the dry ingredients using your fingertips or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse sand.

Add the single egg yolk and ice cold water. Mix gently until the dough just comes together into a smooth ball. Do not overwork the dough.

Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator to relax the gluten.

Roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to 3mm thickness. Carefully line six individual tart rings, pressing into the corners and trimming any excess edges.

Place the lined tart rings in the refrigerator to firm up the butter completely before baking.

Preheat the oven to 170 C (340 F).

Line the tart shells with crumpled parchment paper and fill to the brim with baking weights. Blind bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the weights and paper, then bake for an additional 10 minutes until completely cooked.

In a saucepan, heat the whole milk with the scraped vanilla bean caviar and empty pod until it begins to steam and gently simmer around 85 C (185 F). Remove from heat.

In a separate mixing bowl, vigorously whisk the three egg yolks, granulated sugar, and cornstarch until the mixture is pale, thick, and smooth.

Remove the vanilla pod from the hot milk. Slowly stream half of the hot vanilla milk into the egg mixture while whisking constantly to gradually raise the temperature of the eggs without scrambling them.

Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly and vigorously until the cream thickens and reaches a boil. Once boiling, cook for exactly 1 full minute to neutralize the starch.

Remove from heat. Immediately whisk in the room temperature butter, then pass the pastry cream through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean, shallow bowl.

Press plastic wrap directly onto the entire surface of the pastry cream to prevent a rubbery skin from forming. Chill completely in the refrigerator.

Once cold, remove the pastry cream from the refrigerator and whisk briefly to loosen and smooth it out. Pipe or spoon it evenly into the fully cooled tart shells.

Arrange the sliced raw strawberries in a decorative overlapping pattern on top of the pastry cream, covering it entirely.

Warm the apricot jam with 5ml of water in a small saucepan or microwave until fluid. Use a pastry brush to lightly dab the glaze over the raw strawberries for a glossy finish.