I love fruit and I love pie but I don’t love to make pie crust. In fact, I abhor the idea. I can never make a pie crust that turns out to resemble anything that should or could be edible. That’s what I have my husband for. He makes the most awesome pie crust in the world….really. But he isn’t always around and refrigerated pie dough isn’t my preferred alternative. In a future blog post I will have the mister give up his pie crust secrets, he will gladly share. Somehow I just don’t have the “touch” to make pastry. Enough lamenting. Let’s get on with this tart!
I adore the idea of rustic tarts because they are so versatile and yet they make the filling the star of the show. Keep in mind that while I chose blueberries (Thank you again Ronnie for sharing your wonderful harvest), these tarts can contain anything. Sweet or savory, fruit, onions, tomatoes, meat or cheese; the choice is yours.
For the crust you can use ready made, refrigerated pie crust dough. Or you can be brave (be brave, it won’t hurt a bit) and try this recipe for Pate Brisee inspired by a recipe posted on Simply Recipes.
This makes a single crust:
Start by slicing a stick of butter into slices about 1/2 tablespoon size. Place in small bowl and put into freezer for at least 30 minutes.
Meanwhile gather your other crust ingredients:
1 1/4 Cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
3-4 Tablespoons cold water
1/2 teaspoon almond extract—I used this to compliment the blueberries, don’t use this if making a tart with a savory filling.
Be sure to mix your dry ingredients well. Then add the almond extract if you are using it.
While the butter is chilling, let’s prepare the filling.
Filling:
I used about 3 Cups of fresh blueberries
1/4-1/2 cup of sugar—depends on the fruit and how sweet your tooth is!
1/4 Creme de Cassis
1/8 Cup water plus 1 tablespoon of vanilla IF you do not have the Cassis
1 Tablespoon flour
1 egg white beaten
Sugar to sprinkle
Wash and dry your fruit or berries and prepare them for the filling. In this case we are going to use a bit of sugar to sweeten, the Creme de Cassis to brighten the flavor and a bit of flour to thicken the juice as the berries cook. Mix these ingredients with your berries taking care to gently stir so as not to burst the fruit.
Creme de Cassis makes the blueberries taste out of this world. You will find this item in your local liquor store. You can see that I have made good use so far of this 750ml bottle! For a bit more info about this ingredient, check out this posting on B’s Treehouse.
Set the berry mixture aside while we finish the dough. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Now take the butter from the freezer and using a pastry blender add a few slices at a time and cut them into the flour mixture.
If the butter is too hard, allow it to sit for 5 minutes and try again. You want the butter to be chilled and cut into chunks yet not mushy so that it makes a melty mess. Yes, that is a technical term. Keep working in the butter a few slices at a time until you have bean/pea size balls of flour mixture and butter and you have incorporated the entire stick.
While you are blending the flour mixture and butter, fill a small glass with cold water and a couple of ice cubes. Pop it into the fridge so that it gets really chilly. Once the flour and butter look like the photo above, retrieve the water and put 2-3 Tablespoons of water into the mix.
Work the flour mixture with a spoon or your hands, slowly adding water until it begins to bind together. Don’t use too much water! This particular day was relatively low humidity and I needed a total of 5 tablespoons of water before everything bound together as it should. Three to five tablespoons should almost always make the dough begin to bind or stick together and ready to be turned out on a piece of parchment. Remember that this isn’t your regular oil pastry and it will look a bit more shaggy and course. You should see tidbits of butter throughout the mixture which will make the pastry crisp and flaky. Try to make a ball of dough with the flour mixture:
No, it doesn’t look ready but it is. See how there is a nice ball of dough on the right hand side? Turn the whole bowl of flour out onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper.
I know you think I have a mess on my hands (and on the parchment) but trust me…..Using the heel of your hand, begin to mash together the bits. They will soon yield to your pressure and bind themselves together in a cohesive manner. With a bit of work and pressure you should have a lovely ball of dough. Like any pastry, don’t work it too much or add too much water otherwise the dough will be tough. You just want this worked enough to stick together and roll out nicely.
Here is my “ball” flattened and ready to roll out. Put a bit of flour on your surface and rolling pin. Roll this out to about 1/8″ thick and into about a 12″ circle.
So it isn’t the prettiest thing you have ever seen….but it will be tasty. Stick with me and I will show you how awesome this will be!
Let’s take the fruit and spoon it into the center of this not-so-circular-circle.
Gently lift the edges of the pastry and fold them inward. You want to leave an opening in the center, so just encase the fruit and make enough folds to encircle the whole thing. Meh, English fails me so look at the pretty picture:
Now take that beaten egg white and gently brush it on the pastry.
Using a tablespoon gently sprinkle the pastry and with some sugar and lightly upon the berries as well.
Remember that this will “melt” in the oven, so the sugar on top of the berries will not be apparent upon baking. Now lift the parchment sheet onto a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 350 for about 35 minutes or until the dough is a lovely golden brown.
Rustic and yet so refined. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes prior to serving. Cut in wedges as you would a pie. Serve with vanilla ice cream or even a dollop of whipped cream. The crust is buttery, rich and flaky while the filling is bursting with flavor.
This truly is a uber-versatile recipe. Try using pre-made pie crust for a quick version or use the Pate Brisee above. Fill the center of the tart with whatever your heart desires and I promise that the taste and presentation will be memorable!