Strawberry and rose hazelnut tart, music and a baking bonus

When I was 10 years old I got the Arena album as a gift from a cousin I deeply love. I used to listen to it nonstop, 24/7. I still have the album but since I no longer have a record player I bought the CD a while ago – I love listening to it while I drive to/from work. So good.
The CD version has two bonus tracks, but unfortunately “Girls on Film” and “Rio” are songs I never cared about (and still don’t).

Like one of my all time favorite albums, this recipe has a bonus, too, but in this case it’s a really good one: you get a delicious, fresh tart for dessert and also yummy slice and bake cookies with the leftover pastry. The cookies are so good you might consider postpone making the tart and stick to the pastry alone. :)

Strawberry and rose hazelnut tart
slightly adapted from the always stunning and delicious Australian Gourmet Traveller

Spiced hazelnut pastry:
¾ cup + ½ tablespoon (176g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (148g) icing sugar, sifted
finely grated zest of 1 orange
3 egg yolks
1 ¾ cups + ½ tablespoons (250g) all purpose flour
¾ cup (75g) hazelnut meal (finely ground hazelnuts)
¾ cup (75g) almond meal (finely ground almonds)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder

Filling:
700g strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped
1/3 cup + ½ tablespoon (72g) superfine sugar*
¼ cup (30g) corn starch
finely grated zest and juice of ½ orange
3 teaspoons rosewater
seeds of 1 vanilla bean
heavy cream, for brushing
icing sugar, for dusting
crème fraîche, to serve

Start by making the spiced hazelnut pastry: beat butter, icing sugar and orange zest in an electric mixer until creamy, add yolks and beat to combine. Add remaining ingredients and mix until just combined. Form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (2-3 hours).
Roll two-thirds of hazelnut pastry to 3mm-thick between two large pieces of lightly floured baking paper and line a lightly buttered 24cm (9in) diameter tart pan with a removable bottom. Trim edges, prick pastry all over with a fork and freeze until firm (15 minutes). Roll out remaining dough on a lightly floured piece of baking paper to a rough 24cm-long rectangle, place on an oven tray and refrigerate between the paper pieces until firm (15-20 minutes).
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Combine strawberries, sugar, corn starch, zest, juice and vanilla seeds in a bowl and fill pastry case.
Remove the pastry rectangle from the fridge, remove the paper piece on the top and cut the pastry into your favorite shapes using a cookie cutter (mine was a drop shaped cutter about 3cm long). Place them randomly over strawberry mixture, leaving some of the filling uncovered**. Brush pastry with heavy cream, place tart pan onto a baking sheet and bake until crisp and golden (35-40 minutes), cool completely in the pan over a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve with crème fraîche.

* after tasting the tart I though the filling needed a bit more sugar – have a taste of your strawberries and adjust the sugar amount accordingly to their sweetness

** I gathered up the pastry leftover pieces and made slice and bake cookies with the remaining pastry – they tasted delicious!

Serves 10