French (?) pastry on the cover of a book

Georges Lefebvre's "The French Revolution" has this lovely pastry on its cover (see below).Does anyone know what this is and how to make it?

food-identification pastry

Best Answer

To me it looks like a minimal tartelette au fraise (little strawberry tart). These usually have a custard layer and are normally completely covered in strawberries, but I have seen them with far fewer strawberries. Mixed fruit (tartelette au fruit) or raspberry (tartelette au framboise) tarts are also common.

Here's a youtube recipe video (not my favourite recipe format!) of tartelette au fraise with lots of custard and a single strawberry. The crème diplomate used here is similar to crème patissiere but with whipped cream and gelatine added. I've found a few similar pictures, and the versions with more custard and less strawberry seem to be more popular these days among North-African French chefs than in the bits of France I'm familiar with. My French is passable but my Arabic is sadly lacking so I can't get as much history from the recipes as I would like.

The pâte brisée/shortcrust pastry case may be sweet or plain (even slightly salted).

As the book in question is an 1960s English translation I suspect tracking down the source image will be tricky, but 1950s/60s French books on patisserie would be an interesting place to look - though I wouldn't expect them to have many colour photos.