Strawberry tartlets with chocolate crusts

So it may not be strawberry season, but I've been loving the fruit theme lately. Maybe it's because of the lack of fresh fruits we can get in the winter, or maybe I've just made so much chocolate my body is craving a change of pace. Either way, I was browsing my books and my favorite foodie blogs for something simple, delicious, and new, and came across a recipe for strawberry tartlets with chocolate crust on PurpleFoodie. I didn't end up using her recipes, but that's where the idea stemmed from.

These are simple tartlets: I made the dough when I had a chance earlier in the day, and then the pastry cream a few hours later. After they'd both chilled I baked the tartlet shells and threw the two together with slices on top of the freshest strawberries I could find.

Ingredients
Chocolate tart dough, or pâte sucrée au chocolat
(adapted from Michel Roux's Pastry)
•1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
•2/3 C unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and softened
•1 t salt
•1/4 C unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
•1/3-1/2 C confectioner's sugar
•1 large egg
•1 t vanilla extract (I used a Godiva chocolate liqueur a friend had on hand, but a little more than a tsp. Experiment!)

Crème pâtissière
(adapted from Julia Child's The Way to Cook)
•6 egg yolks
•1/2 C white sugar
•1/2 C all-purpose flour
•2 C milk
•2 T butter
•1 T vanilla extract (you could also use a vanilla bean, and let it sit in the cream throughout the process)

Directions
For the dough: Mound flour on work surface and make a well in the center. One at a time, place butter, salt, sugar, and egg in center of well and mix together using your fingers. Slowly incorporate flour into butter mixture, using fingers, until a slightly crumbly dough forms. Slowly incorporate milk until dough begins to come together. Using the palm of your hand, knead dough until smooth, 4 to 5 times. Roll dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. Dough may be kept refrigerated, up to one week or frozen up to 3 months. If you plan to use the dough within the next day or so, make a disc rather than a ball, and refrigerate it that way instead. To bake them, let the dough thaw until it is a workable texture. Roll out to 1/16th of an inch and use a round cookie cutter a little larger than your tartlet molds to cut out circles for the tartlets. Place in tartlet molds and bake with weights for ten minutes at 375˚ F, then remove weights and place back in oven for five minutes. Let cool before filling.

For the pastry cream: Heat milk to boiling and remove from heat immediately. Set aside. Place the egg yolks in the saucepan, and with a wire whisk gradually beat in the sugar. Continue beating for a minute or two until the mixture is a thick, pale yellow, and forms ribbons. Beat in flour, then beat in the hot milk in a thin stream. Set over moderately high heat and stir slowly and continuously with whisk until mixture thickens. Continue beating vigorously to rid the cream of lumps it forms. Bring cream to a boil over medium heat and let bubble for two minutes. Be cautious not to scorch the cream on the bottom of the pan; heavy-bottomed saucepans work quite well, and make sure you are constantly stirring and your heat is not too high. Remove from heat; beat in butter and vanilla. Clean off sides of the pan with a spatula. Film top of the pastry cream with confectioners sugar or little flakes of butter to prevent crusting over the top. Chill (pastry cream will keep 3 or 4 days under refigeration or may be frozen up to a month). Pipe pastry cream into tart shells and top with strawberries or other fresh fruit of your choice. Serve and enjoy!