This gorgeous Strawberry Tart is a lot easier to make than it looks! I add orange to the delicious filling, and it complements the strawberries perfectly. Coupled with my homemade buttery crust, this tart is made to impress.
Decorated with roses and leaves made out of pie crust, my strawberry tart recipe is a unique work of art that’s perfect for special occasions. I made this tart with Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day in mind in particular — it’s small and intimate but still enough to share with your whole family. Not only is the orange-infused strawberry filling so flavorful and juicy, but it also makes the perfect perch for the little flowers and leaves.
Pretty decorated pies likes this strawberry tart along with my decorated strawberry hand pies and decorated blueberry lemon hand pies are not only perfect for springtime but they really take everything over the top — in addition to their tasty filling, of course. But let me assure you, this is actually a very simple and straightforward recipe for a strawberry tart. I’ll show you exactly how to make the decorations too. It’s so much easier than you might think!
Table of Contents
Helpful tools
Other than your standard baking equipment, you’ll also need a rectangular tart pan and some pie crust stamps. I used the same maple leaf pie stamp I used in this apple pie recipe to make the leaf cut-out. I know it’s not a rose leaf, but hey, I used what I had. That said, there are rose leaf pie stamps available out there!
If you don’t have a rectangular tart pan, an 8″ round tart pan should also work.
Ingredients and substitutions
As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips:
- All-purpose flour – I don’t use a special type of flour here — AP is totally fine. You could try pastry flour instead if you’d like. It has a lower protein content and so will yield a flakier crust.
- Granulated sugar – for both the crust and the filling.
- Salt – I typically use kosher salt. You can omit if using salted butter.
- Unsalted butter – I don’t usually bake with salted butter but since butter is only used in the crust of my strawberry fruit tart, you can substitute salted butter. Just omit the salt called for separately.
- Strawberries – Please opt for fresh strawberries over frozen. They will give you the freshest flavor and the best presentation!
- Orange – I added orange juice and orange zest to the filling to add brightness, enhance the flavor of the berries, and make this recipe even more unique. Other citrus can be substituted.
- Cornstarch – Arrowroot powder or tapioca starch are both good alternatives to thicken the filling.
How to make strawberry tart with rose decorations
The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
Make the dough
I’m using my all-butter pie crust for my strawberry fruit tart — just like I do in almost all of my pie and tart recipes! You can use refrigerated pie dough to save time.
You can quickly make the pie dough by pulsing cold cubed butter with the flour, sugar, and salt mixture in a food processor fitted with the dough blade. Drizzle just enough cold water through the feeder tube hole while the food processor is running to form the dough.
Divide into two portions: a larger portion – ⅔ of the total dough – will be used for the crust, and a smaller portion – ⅓ of the total dough – will be used for the decorations. Shape into disks, wrap well and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Start the filling
Wash and cut the strawberries, then add them to a mixing bowl with half the sugar, orange zest, and juice. Let it sit for 1 hour to drain some of the excess moisture in the fruit.
Prepare the crust and par-bake
Once the dough is ready, roll out the larger portion into a rectangular shape to fit into a 4×13-inch rectangular tart pan. Par-bake the crust with dry beans as pie weights to keep it from getting soggy when filled with fresh strawberries.
Make the decorations
Roll out the smaller disk of dough so it’s ⅛ inch thick, then cut it into circles with a 2-inch cookie cutter. Place 4 of the circles overlapping as shown in the images, then roll them together into a tube. Cut the tube in half crosswise, pinch the cut end together, and flare out the petals to create the rose shape. Repeat to make as many flowers as you’d like.
For the leaf decorations, reroll the scraps and cut out as many leaves as you want using a maple leaf pie crust stamp.
Assemble and bake
Drain the strawberry mixture and add the juice to a small saucepan and reduce it to just 2 tablespoons over medium heat. You will use this in place of egg wash to brush the decorations to promote browning.
Mix the strawberries with the remaining sugar and cornstarch. Arrange the strawberry slices in the cooled, par-baked crust, then pour any juice remaining on top. Decorate it to your heart’s desire, brush the decorations with the reduced strawberry juice, and bake. Allow the tart to cool completely before slicing into it.
Storage
If you plan on eating your strawberry rose tart within the next day, feel free to store it covered at room temperature. Otherwise, I recommend keeping it in an airtight container in the refrigerator, where it will keep for up to 2-3 days.
It can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Transfer it to the refrigerator the night before you plan on serving it to thaw. You can crisp up the crust by reheating it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
I have not try freezing this strawberry tart unbaked. However, based on my experience, you should be able to freeze it unbaked and bake it directly from frozen before serving. The filling for this tart is not as thick as a typical fruit pie, take this cranberry pear pie as an example, so it shouldn’t increase bake time by a whole lot to bake from frozen. I would avoid thawing before baking; the strawberries can release a lot of liquid during the thawing process and you risk the tart getting soggy.
📖 Recipe card
7-Ingredient Strawberry Tart with Roses
Equipment
- 4"x13" or 8" Tart Pan
Ingredients
Pie Dough
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (300 g)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (46 g)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 ounce unsalted butter (cold and cubed, 227 g)
- 4-5 tablespoon cold water
- Extra flour for rolling
Strawberry Filling
- 1 pound strawberry (454 g)
- ¼ cup sugar (46 g, divided)
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch (17 g)
Instructions
Make the dough
- Add flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Then transfer to a food processor fitted with the dough blade.
- Cube the cold butter and add to the flour mixture. Pulse several times until butter is about pea and bean size, variation in size is okay, but no smaller than a pea.
- Turn the food processor to “on” position and drizzle just enough cold water over the dough mixture through the feeder tube hole, as soon as the dough starts to pull together turn the food processor off. You may need to stop the food processor in between and scrape with a spatula to get the flour at the bottom to mix up.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, quickly knead together into a ball. Divide into 2 portions: one larger portion should be about ⅔ of the total dough and one smaller portion about ⅓ of the total dough. Shape each into a disk. Wrap in plastic and rest in the refrigerator for an hour.
Start the strawberry filling
- Wash and hull the strawberries; cut into slices about ¼” thick.
- In a medium bowl, toss strawberries with half the sugar, orange zest and juice; let rest for at least one hour to extract some of the strawberry juice out.
Prepare the crust
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Take the larger disk of dough out of the refrigerator and roll into a rectangular shape at least 2” wider than your tart pan on each side.
- Place the dough over a 4”x13” rectangular tart pan, lightly press the dough into the bottom and sides of the pan, let the excess dough hang over the side.
- Press the rolling pin along the edges of the tart pan to take off excess dough.
- Poke the dough with a fork a few times, line with parchment paper and fill with dry beans.
- Par-bake the crust for 15 mins with beans, remove parchment paper and beans, bake for 5 minutes longer.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Prepare the decorations
- Mean while take the smaller disk of pie dough out of the refrigerator, roll it out to ⅛” thick, cut into circles with a 2” cookie cutter. Put 4 circles together overlapping one another. Roll them up, cut in half crosswise. Pinch the bottom of the dough on the cut end. On the open end, flare out the petals to shape the rose. This will make 2 roses.
- Repeat the step above to make more roses, reroll the scraps as needed. You should have enough dough to make 10 roses and several leaves.
- Use a leaf shape pie crust stamp to cut out the leaf decorations.
- Freeze or refrigerate all decorations until ready to use.
Assemble and bake
- Drain the strawberry juice and reduce to 2 tablespoons in a small saucepan over medium heat, set aside.
- Add the rest of the sugar and cornstarch to the strawberry and mix well.
- Add strawberry slices into the cooled par-baked crust; pour any remaining juice over the filling.
- Add rose and leaf decorations in two corners and in the middle of the tart.
- Brush the roses and leaves with the reduced strawberry juice set aside earlier.
- Bake for 22 minutes uncovered until the crust is golden and filling is bubbly. If the decorations start to burn before the tart is baked, you can tent the tart with a piece of foil.
Nutrition
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Wow! I saw this on Pinterest and had to check it out. This is stunning – perfect for upcoming mothers day.
Thank you so much Marie!