Strawberry Champagne Tart

This post may contain affiliate sales links. Please read my disclosure policy.

This strawberry tart recipe combines a tender wafer crust with a creamy champagne mascarpone filling. It’s all topped with juicy strawberry slices, plus a light champagne glaze!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Sweet and buttery. A simple vanilla wafer crust provides this strawberry tart with a buttery base that’s good enough to munch on by itself. Once you factor in the smooth champagne mascarpone filling, the fresh strawberry slices, and the sweet champagne glaze, it’s impossible to empty your plate without filling it up again!
• Adjustable. This recipe is incredibly easy to make from scratch, and it produces enough servings for a crowd – you can even double the recipe and use two separate tart pans, if you like.
• Elegant. Strawberries + champagne, in tart form? You really can’t make a more elegant dessert.

What Is a Tart?

A tart is a classic pastry that comes in various flavors, often involving fruit. It’s characterized by its shallow crust, creamy filling, and lack of a second crust on top. Though tarts can be sweet or savory, they’re most commonly topped with fresh berries and a shiny glaze – just like this gorgeous strawberry version!

Ingredient Notes

This light and dainty dessert uses conveniently few ingredients. Check out the printable recipe card near the end of this post for specific amounts and the full set of directions.

For the Vanilla Wafer Crust

• Vanilla wafer crumbs – I like to use a food processor to crush up my wafers.
• Sugar – You’ll just need regular granulated sugar for this recipe.
• Butter – Make sure to melt this before you begin.

For the Champagne Mascarpone Filling

• Powdered gelatin – To help the filling set.
• Water – This should be nice and cold.
• Champagne – Use your favorite variety, but try to stay away from champagnes that are extra dry.
• Cornstarch – Don’t forget this important thickener.
• Sugar – We’ll use granulated sugar here as well.
• Mascarpone cheese – Let this soften before you start on the filling.
• Heavy whipping cream – Heavy whipping cream and heavy cream are the same thing, so whichever label you see first in the store will work!
• Powdered sugar – I recommend sifting out any lumps in your powdered sugar before you begin.

For the Berries & Glaze

• Strawberries – Cut these into thin slices.
• Champagne
• Cornstarch – To thicken up the glaze a little bit.
• Sugar

Tips for Success

• Wet the gelatin. It’s important that all of the gelatin is touching the water – if it doesn’t naturally incorporate when you sprinkle it on top, give the mixture a gentle stir. Otherwise, it’ll be harder to incorporate into the champagne mixture.
• Don’t boil the champagne mixture. Allowing the champagne mixture to come to a boil will mess with the thickening power of the cornstarch. Once it just starts to simmer around the edges, whisk in the melted gelatin mixture.
• Speed up the cooling process. You want the champagne and gelatin mixture to cool until it’s not yet firm, but jiggly and easy to stir. I like to pour it into a bowl and chill it in the fridge. In this case, it should be sufficiently thickened in about 20 minutes.

Substitutions & Recipe Variations

• Change the shape. Feel free to use a round 9-inch tart pan instead of a long rectangular one if you’d like. If you do this, I recommend using a pizza cutter to slice the tart into servings.
• Use different fruit. You can make this tart with any kind of fruit you like! Try adding blueberries to make it festive for Memorial Day or the 4th of July.
• Make a graham cracker crust. I personally love how this tart tastes with a vanilla wafer crust, but you can totally make it with a graham cracker one if preferred. Just substitute the wafer crumbs for equal parts crushed graham crackers!
• Omit the glaze. This tart is still delicious without the glaze, but I do recommend adding it if you expect to have leftovers. It actually helps preserve the sliced strawberries, making your tart hold up better in the fridge.

How to Store Extras

• Store in the fridge: This strawberry tart is best fresh, but it will stay good in the fridge for up to 2 days. Be sure to keep it in an airtight container.
• Don’t freeze it. Due to the nature of the filling and the sliced berries, I don’t recommend freezing this tart. The freezing process would break down the gelatin in the filling and diminish the quality of the strawberries.

More Tart Recipes

If you loved this strawberry tart recipe, be sure to check out these other easy tart recipes as well:

• Cannoli Tart
• Creamy Lemon Tart
• Raspberry Nutella Tart
• Reese’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart
• White Chocolate Butterscotch Tart

Print