Matcha Black Sesame Tart Recipe (Updated)

My matcha black sesame tart is like a twist on frangipane tart, only you're using ground black sesame instead of almonds.

I first made a black sesame tart with matcha shortcrust pastry a few years ago, and recently got a craving for it again. But looking back at the recipe, I felt the pastry could be upgraded to be easier to work with, and also the technique could be made neater.

So, in this updated matcha black sesame tart recipe, I'm adding half an egg white to the previously shortbread-only pastry to help bind it together and make it less prone to cracking. And I tweaked the technique so that you get perfectly neat pastry edges for your tart crust.

There's a little leftover matcha pastry dough, but I just like to gather it up into a ball, flatten it out a bit, and bake it like shortbread biscuits – it's delicious as it is.

You can also watch me make this on my YouTube channel, Tashcakes:

Ready? Let's go.

Ingredients for Matcha Pastry:

300g plain flour
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp matcha
3 tbsp icing sugar
Pinch of salt
180g cold unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 an egg white

Ingredients for Filling:

3 tbsp strawberry jam (to spread on the base of the crust)
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
3 eggs
150g ground black sesame seeds

Topping:

300ml double cream
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp matcha powder to dust
Strawberries to (about 10)

Method:

1. lightly grease a loose-bottomed tart dish (about 8–9" in diameter).

2. To make the pastry dough, add the flours, matcha, icing sugar, salt and butter to a large bowl, and rub with your fingers until it forms a clumpy breadcrumb-like consistency. Add the egg white and knead until it comes together as a smooth dough (stop just as it comes together – don't over-knead).

3. Roll the pastry out between two sheets of non-stick baking paper until about 1cm thick, and drape over your tart tin. Use your fingers to ease the dough into the corners of the tin and shape neatly, and roll your rolling pin over the top to cut off the excess pastry (you can gather the scraps up and squash them together to bake it as a leftover biscuit).

4. Prick the bottom of the pastry all over with a fork, and pop your pastry-lined tin in the fridge for half an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C.

5. Place a sheet of non-stick baking paper over the pastry, and fill with baking beans (or dried beans or rice, but baking beans are more reusable). Bake for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and leave to cool completely, but keep the oven on. Remove the baking paper and baking beans.

6. When cooled, spread the strawberry jam around the bottom evenly.

7. To make the black sesame filling, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, and whisk in the eggs. Stir in the ground black sesame, and spoon into your baked pastry case.

8. Bake for a final 25–30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Leave to cool completely.

9. Whisk the cream and sugar together until it forms soft peaks, and pipe or spread over the top of your tart.

10. Dust over the matcha, dot on the strawberries and serve.

Enjoy, and have fun.