Summer Berries Tart

Blackberries, strawberries, raspberries….oh my. Summertime.

I grew up in a small town along the Hudson River in New York’s Hudson Valley. Mom was born and raised in Brooklyn; Dad in the Bronx. They were city folk, but didn’t want to bring up a family in the city. As my mother’s mother, Grandma Rose put it, we lived in the sticks.

It was really an idyllic place to be a kid. Our house was surrounded by apple orchards, woodlands and open fields. In the fall we’d raid the orchards and Mom would make apple pie. Winters my dad and older brother would hunt, and we’d have wild game dinners. Winters seemed to last forever, and with the full meaning of the word, we’d spring out in April, released from heavy coats and boots and winter flannels. It was a time for fishing and reacquainting ourselves with the wilderness around us. As spring gave way to summer I would already have mapped out the blackberry bushes and the best (hidden) wild strawberry patches where nobody would bother them until they grew big and red. The wild berries had such intense flavor.

I’d bring back buckets of berries, and we’d have them on ice cream and on pancakes and in strawberry rhubarb pies.

This recipe brings me back to that time. Though today most often the berries I use I get from grocery stores, early in the year, and from farm stands as summer progresses, and the flavors are not quite as vivid, combining them into this tart is like the best of the best in each.

I was sitting on the patio at my friend Jan’s house, which meant we were enjoying some early summer day drinking when Jan suggested we needed to have a little patio party – socially distanced, of course. I’ve known Jan for a hundred years. She used to be my health inspector when I had my restaurant and cafe, and she’s a great cook and a fellow cook book enthusiast, and these little “mini events” were often a collaboration that grew out of one or the other of us having a culinary craving. This time Jan’s was a clam boil.

When we started divvying up who would make what I knew right off what I wanted. Summer berries. “I’ll do the dessert,” I claimed. I saw it in my head. I tasted it. The colors spoke to me. I knew the crust I’d used. The only thing I lacked was a recipe for the filling. A little thing like that.

My creative process, when I’m developing a recipe, usually starts with my favorite cookbooks; for inspiration. For this I perused Silver Palate, Southern Living, Café Beaujolais and an old fave Rosie’s Bakery All-Butter Fresh Cream Sugar-Packed (no holds barred) Baking Book. I gather ideas and jot down something from this recipe, something from that one, an idea from a picture here, a story there. All the time I had flash backs to my childhood in New York.

I knew the crust would be shortbread. Simple, not too sweet, crunchy to go with the “mushiness” of cooked berries. And I knew it had to have some spice. Not much. In my head I saw the flavors of nutmeg and cinnamon reaching out to me. Now for the filling. After searching my books, doing an online search and not finding a tart recipe that called out to me I settled on creating one from an amalgamation of pie recipes. But my mind kept going back to those spices in the crust, and I had a nagging thought I just couldn’t wrap my mind around about a complimentary flavor in the filling.

This is an easy recipe. I used a 10” tart pan with a removable bottom, but it can be made in a 9 x 13 rectangular tart pan, a pie plate, a spring form pan or any baking pan with a lip. The tart shell is easiest made in a food processor, but can be made by hand, using your fingers to rub the butter into the flour and sugar mix. I tamp down the crust with a flat bottomed measuring cup, though I have sometimes used a straight edged cocktail glass (for some reason there always seems to be a cocktail glass around when I am in the kitchen). NOTE: the recipe made a bit too much crust, and this crust, when too thick can be really hard, so I used the extra to make a couple of small tarts. The crust is quick to make, and takes about 12 – 15 minutes to blind bake. The filling can cook in the time the shell bakes, and you can pour it right in the still hot crust and return it to the oven to finish.

I found really great, not too sweet strawberries, a really vibrant red and full of flavor at a local farm stand. I knew I wanted black berries and blueberries, and when I went to the market there was a display of raspberries that just called out to me, and right there it hit me. Chambord.

The hardest part to making the berry mixture is trying not to eat too many of the berries before they fall into the pot.

SUMMER BERRY TART (recipe)

Makes one 10” tart

INGREDIENTS:

2  cups  All-purpose flour

½   cup  confectioners sugar (you can sub ¼ cup granulated sugar)

¼ tsp   Kosher Salt

1 cup (2 sticks)  Un-salted Sweet Cream Butter (if using salted butter cut salt to 1/8

tsp.) Cut + into small pieces – the smaller the better

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cut the butter into small chunks – the smaller the better. Return to the refrigerator to chill while assembling the rest of the ingredients. Mix flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon (optional) and pour into the barrel of food processer. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is incorporated. Should be a damp “sandy” consistency.

Pour tart mix into tart shell and tamp down all over bottom of pan (I used a flat bottomed measuring cup to make the tart bottom uniformly flat), pushing some up the sides and pressing as you go. Sides should be ¼ inch thick at most. Too thick and when baked they will be hard and “bulky”.

Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. You can make the tart shell a day or two in advance, or you can fill the shell as soon as it’s baked and return to oven to set filling.

 

FILLING:

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 cup fresh blackberries

1 ½ cups fresh strawberries cut in half or quartered – depending on size

¾ cups sugar (more depending on sweetness of berries and taste)

¼ cup cornstarch

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (can used bottled)

3 tablespoons Chambord liqueur

3 tablespoons butter – cut into small pieces

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

1/3 cup water

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon (optional) and water. In a large saucepan blueberries, lemon juice and sugar mixture. Over medium heat cook til the mixture thickens and bubbles – about 2 minutes. Berries will start to break down. Gently fold in strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Be careful not to over mix, you want the berries to maintain some of their structure. Add Chambord and butter to mixture.

Add filling to tart shell and place on center shelf in oven. Bake at 350°F for 45-50 minutes. Crust edges should be golden brown and filling bubbly. Cool on wire rack.

Dust with powdered sugar right before serving.