Ingredients:

Crust:

1 Cup Cake flour

3 TBS confectioners’ sugar

½ Cup butter, chilled and cut into small blocks

½ TSP pink salt

Topping:

1 Cup fresh strawberries, hulled & cut in half

½ Cup granulated sugar (see comment if you want to omit sugar)

3 Tablespoons of cake flour

2 Large eggs, plus 2 large egg yolks

1 Bundle fresh lemon grass leaves, cut into 10 cm lengths (see photo)

60 ml Crystallized ginger, cut into thin strips

(if you want to use fresh ginger root, see comment)

5 Drops red food colouring (optional)

Garnish

Sliced fresh strawberries

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 C.
• Topping: Cook the strawberries, lemongrass, granulated sugar, ¼ cup of water over low heat until the fruit becomes soft and start to break down (5-10 min). Remove from the heat, remove the lemongrass, and add the crystallized ginger, leave to cool.
• Crust: Pulse the confectioners’ sugar, salt and the flour in a food processor until combined. Add the butter and pulse until course, like bread crumbs. Press the mixture firmly onto the bottom of a square pan. Bake until golden at the edges (15-20 minutes). Set aside to cool
• Purée the strawberry mix until smooth. Add the eggs and yolks and blend until smooth. Add the 3 tablespoons of flour and pulse again.
• Pour the mixture over the crust, bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Chill for 2 hours.
• Serve with sliced strawberries.

Comment recipe #83

This crust gets 5-golden starts for me! Not just for its simplicity to make, but also for taste & presentation! In this recipe I used crystallized ginger because I wanted to omit the granulated sugar. If you want to use fresh ginger root, just add the sugar to balance sweetness.

Marelie Winterbach