Blueberry Tart

Sometimes pastry can seem a bit daunting and time-consuming. This tart uses a sweet pastry that crisps up beautifully while the filling cooks without the need to bake it blind first.

We were invited to lunch by my friend Philippa, who amongst her many incarnations can count a career as a chef. I’ve known Philippa since our eldest daughters were tiny babies, so nearly twelve years. When they were little we were part of a group of mums who would take it in turns to host lunch.

When my kids were little I just about managed to function – even baking would have been a step too far. I am still beyond amazed by all you mums out there who have jobs, children, animals, blogs and manage to create all sorts of things. There are plenty of you and you know who you are!

I’m pretty sure there was a lot of store-bought quiche and hummus when it was my turn. I really can’t remember what I made but I still remember lunches at Philippa’s! She would serve up all sorts of amazing salads, breads and dips without seeming to even have to think about it, while dealing with a baby. Luckily these days I can at least offer to bring dessert!

This is a great dessert to take to friends as you can make the pastry the day before and fill and bake the tart just before you need it. It’s particularly good still warm.

I made the pastry, covered it with clingfilm and put it in the fridge overnight. I then took it out in the morning to warm up enough to be able to roll it out but then left it for far too long: it was easy to roll out but absolutely impossible to handle as the butter had warmed up too much. The good news is that it really doesn’t matter as this is the sort of pastry that you can mould anyway:

Not so much rolled out as pressed in…

As long as you end up with no gaps or holes you should be fine: just try to make the crust as even as possible. I always have pastry left over and use it to make tartlets.

You could leave the uncooked pastry case in the fridge overnight as long as you cover it in clingfilm.

Ready to add the filling

When you are ready to bake the tart, fill the base with a layer of blueberries, mix the filling and pour over:

Ready to bake

Recipe

Ingredients

Pastry

250g flour

175g butter

20g caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

About half a tablespoon of cold water if necessary

Filling

About 250g blueberries

2 eggs

125g caster sugar

175ml double cream

25g flour

Method

Make the pastry: rub the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

Mix in the sugar and add the egg, and water if necessary, and combine to form a ball.

Wrap and put in the fridge to rest for about half an hour or until ready to use.

Roll out the pastry to fit an 8″/20cm loose based flan tin.

Cover and leave in the fridge again for around 20 minutes.

Set the oven to 200ºC.

Make the filling:

Fill the pastry base with a layer of blueberries.

Combine the eggs, sugar, cream and flour and mix until smooth.

Pour over the blueberries and bake for around 35 minutes or until risen and well browned.

Blueberry tart

We took some frozen yogurt to serve it with but it would also be really good with créme fraîche.

It was, as always, a wonderful lunch and a really lovely afternoon – thank you Philippa!

Categories: Baking, Desserts, Fruit, Pastry, Recipes

Tags: baking, blueberries, cream, dessert, fruit, pastry, recipe, seasonal cooking