Strawberry Cream Tarts

Heat the milk with the scraped seeds of the vanilla bean or the vanilla bean paste until just below a simmer.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. Ready a bowl with the butter, placing a strainer on top of it.

Gradually whisk the hot milk into egg mixture and then return it all to the pot. Whisk this constantly (switching to a spatula now and again, to get into the corners) over medium heat until thickened and glossy, about 2 minutes. Pour this immediately through the strainer, whisking it through if needed, and stir in the butter. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly over the surface of the custard, cool to room temperature and then chill completely until ready to use.

The pastry cream will keep up to 4 days refrigerated.

Makes about 1 ½ cups.

For crust, preheat the oven to 350 F and lightly grease mini muffin tins.

Combine the flour, graham cracker crumbs, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the melted butter and mix until an even crumbly texture. Spoon about a tablespoonful of the mixture into each muffin cup and press it into the bottom and up the sides. Bake these for 10 minutes, then cool before assembling.

Use a skewer to gently remove each tart shell from the tin Stir the vanilla pastry cream to soften and then spoon or pipe the filling into each cup and then arrange a strawberry on top of each. Chill until ready to serve.

The tart shells and pastry cream can be prepared up to a day in advance, but should be assembled within a few hours of serving.