Blackberry and Apple Tart

If you have any blackberries left in your freezer from the Autumn, and don’t want to make another crumble, this is a great weeknight, family dessert. It is essentially a wholemeal pastry case filled with deliciously soft apples and blackberries. The pastry does not have any added sugar and the filling for the tart is just fruit, a sprinkle of sugar, a few dabs of butter and some flaked almonds. It really couldn’t be simpler.

Using part spelt wholemeal flour, part plain white flour gives a tasty, short pastry texture. Even though this is a dessert recipe I don’t think it needs any sugar: there is enough in the filling. Wholemeal pastry can often seem quite dry but this one doesn’t have this problem.

The pastry might seem as if it wants to break and flake when you are rolling it out: just be firm with it and push it back into shape, while trying not to overwork it. Any breaks that occur when you are putting it in the tin can be easily fixed as well.

Recipe

Ingredients

Pastry

125g plain white flour

100g wholemeal spelt flour

pinch of salt

50g butter

50g white vegetable fat (or lard)

2-3 tablespoons chilled water

Filling

4 dessert apples

150g blackberries

2-3 tablespoons Demerara sugar

a few dabs of butter

Flaked almonds

Method

Make the pastry: put the flours and salt into a large bowl or food processor. Cut the fats into small cubes and add to the flour.

Either rub the fat into the flour using your fingers or using the pulse setting on the food processor.

Add enough of the water for the dough to bind together and form into a ball.

Wrap the dough in cling film and put into the fridge to chill for around half an hour.

When the dough is chilled, roll it out and use it to line the base of a tart dish:

Uncooked pastry case

Set the oven to 190ºC.

Either prick the base of the pastry all over or use greaseproof paper and baking beans to weigh the pastry down.

Bake the pastry case for around 20 minutes or until golden brown. If you find that it is starting to bubble up while it is cooking just prick it again with a knife and push it back down.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin:

Baked pastry case

Make the filling: peel and slice the apples. Mix in up to a couple of tablespoons of Demerara sugar.

Add up to a tablespoon of Demerara sugar to the blackberries and mix in.

Put the apples into the pastry case and sprinkle over the blackberries.

Add a few dabs of butter to the top of the tart.

Sprinkle over some flaked almonds:

Filled and ready for the oven

Bake for around 25 minutes or until the fruit is soft and the almonds are beginning to brown.

Allow to cool in the tin for a while before removing the tin and transferring the tart to a plate.

Delicious served warm!

As I had a small amount of leftover pastry I thought I might as well make something with it so made a few Mango Curd Tarts with the Mango Curd from a while ago. They were really tasty and would be great with a little crème fraiche on top to neaten them up as the mango curd puffs up in the oven and then collapses:

Mango Curd Tarts

I think I will be using this pastry recipe a lot more in future, would love to know what you think of it!

Categories: Baking, Desserts, Fruit, Pastry, Recipes

Tags: apples, baking, blackberries, blackberry and apple, dessert, flaked almonds, fruit, pastry, recipe, spelt flour, tart, wholemeal flour