Crostata di Fragole e Crema Pasticcera
My mother's birthday cake
A pasta frolla shell filled with vanilla pastry cream and covered in fresh strawberries — not the jam-filled crostata already on this blog, but the custard version my mother made for birthdays.
There's already a crostata di fragole on this blog, built the other way — jam holding the strawberries in place, no custard. This one is a genuinely different cake: a blind-baked pasta frolla shell filled with real crema pasticcera, then covered edge to edge with fresh strawberries. It's the version that showed up at birthdays specifically — a classic my mother made whenever there was something to celebrate.
The custard is what makes it a birthday cake rather than an everyday tart: cool, thick, vanilla-scented pastry cream under a layer of glossy sliced strawberries, sometimes brushed with a little warmed jam or jelly to keep the fruit shining. It cuts into clean slices and holds up on a table for hours, which is exactly what a cake needs to do at a party.
Worth being precise about which pastry cream this is: it's thickened with cornstarch, not the flour-thickened true Neapolitan crema pasticcera that holds a piped "riccio" on a zeppola. That denser version would sit heavy against this tart's crumbly pasta frolla shell — the lighter, cornstarch-set cream is the right choice here, not a shortcut.
Not the jam crostata — the custard one, the version that meant somebody's birthday.
The recipe
For one 24–26 cm tart, serving 8.
Crostata di Fragole e Crema Pasticcera — pastry cream and fresh strawberries. Click to enlarge.
1 batchPasta frolla, chilled
500 mlWhole milk
4Egg yolks
120 gSugar
40 gCornstarch
1 tspVanilla extract, or zest of 1 lemon
500 gFresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
2 tbsp, optionalWarmed jam or jelly, to glaze
1
Roll out the pasta frolla, line a 24–26 cm tart pan, prick the base, and blind-bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 20 minutes, until golden. Cool completely.
2
Warm the milk in a saucepan until steaming. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale, then whisk in the cornstarch until smooth.
3
Pour the hot milk slowly into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly, then return everything to the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Stir in the vanilla or lemon zest.
4
Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the cream and chill completely, at least 2 hours.
5
Spread the chilled crema pasticcera into the cooled shell. Arrange the sliced strawberries over the top, starting from the outer edge and working in.
Brush the fruit with warmed jam or jelly for shine, if you like — apricot jam is the classic choice since its color stays neutral over anything you put under it. Best eaten the same day.
Strawberries aren't the only option: kiwi slices, mixed berries, or thin peach or apricot wedges all sit well on the same chilled cream — arrange whatever's ripest, working from the outer edge in.
Shrunk down to a few bites, this same shell-and-cream logic is a cestino con fragoline di bosco — a small crisp pasta frolla tartlet filled with crema pasticcera and topped with a dome of fragrant wild strawberries instead of the sliced garden kind. A fixture of the Sunday vassoio delle paste, and one of my favorites there.
Same shell, same cream, four fruits — strawberries, mixed berries, peach, kiwi. Click to enlarge.
Related
Crostata di Fragole
The jam-filled version — no custard, a different cake entirely. See
the full recipe.
Pasta Frolla
The shortcrust shell underneath this and most crostate on the blog. See
the full recipe.
Crostata Amalfitana
The baked-in version — lemon cream and amarene go into the oven with the pastry, not spread on after. See
the full recipe.
Buon appetito.
