In the summertime, this French recipe for berry tart is perfect for dessert. Since the fresh berries are the main flavour, you can choose your favourites such as strawberries, raspberries and/or blueberries. The pastry is the most time-consuming step, so you can also use ready-made shortcrust pastry as a shortcut. Additionally, the gelatine step can be replaced by ready-made packets of cake glaze. These can be found at larger supermarkets or online.
The cream filling is basically a crème anglaise. However, I like to add a little butter at the end as I think that gives it a nice texture. It’s the same filling that I use for choux pastry. After the tart is assembled, it is best eaten within 1-2 days, as the pastry will start to get soggy.
Ingredients
Pastry
120 g unsalted butter
70 g icing sugar
25 g ground almonds
pinch of salt
1 egg
200 g plain flour
Cream filling (crème anglaise)
400 ml whole milk
1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste
4 egg yolks
80g granulated sugar
30g corn starch
25 g unsalted butter
Topping
300g fresh raspberries, washed and dried
200 g fresh blueberries, washed and dried
100 g granulated sugar
50 ml water
2 leaves of gelatine
Instructions
Pastry
First, cut the butter into pieces and put in a large bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. Next, add in the icing sugar, almonds, and salt. Mix with hands. Add in the egg and mix with hands until the dough is uniform. Then add in the flour and knead gently with hands in the bowl. Do not overmix. Roll dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Cream filling
First, in a medium bowl beat the egg yolks and sugar until the colour changes to lighter. Next, mix in the corn starch.
In a saucepan, heat the milk over medium-low heat and mix in vanilla paste. Add 1/3 of the milk into the yolk mixture then reverse and add all of the yolk mixture into the saucepan. Stir and cook until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Set aside to cool.
Finishing the berry tart
Preheat oven to 175C. You can either roll out the dough or press it into the pans. The dough should be about 1/2 cm thick on the bottom and sides of a large (or several small) tart pan(s). Bake the tart pastry for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool.
Once the tart has cooled, spread the cream over the crust evenly. Arrange berries on the top. Let the gelatine leaves sit in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes. In a small saucepan, heat the water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add in the softened gelatine and cook for 1-2 minutes until the mixture is clear. Cool for 5 minutes then pour over the tart. Finally, refrigerate the tart for at least 2 hours before serving.
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