Recipe Raspberry and Blackberry Tart

[Morning Glory]

@Autumn_Hearthwitch posted a thread about Strawberry pie. I am yet to attempt the Strawberry Pie which has a top and bottom crust , but it inspired me to make this simple fruit tart. You could make this with all sorts of fruit, including strawberries. I cheated shamelessly with the custard filling - ready-made custard with egg yolks added! You could make a Creme Patissiere filling if you want: http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/how-to-cook/how-to-make-a-creme-patissiere.

I made four small tarts from this recipe, but you could make a standard 24cm/10 inch tart.

Photographed today in natural light augmented by LED

Ingredients
225g / 8 oz plain flour
110g / 4 oz butter or shortening (or a mix of both)
80g / 3 oz caster sugar
1 egg
A little milk
1/2 Tsp salt
250 ml/1 cup ready-made custard
4 egg yolks
Raspberries and blackberries
1 tbsp raspberry jam

Method

• Pour ready-made custard into a saucepan and add the egg yolks. Heat gently stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Allow to cool, covering the top with cling film to prevent a skin forming.
• Put flour, fat and sugar and salt into a bowl. Rub the fat into the flour with fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Add the egg and stir until the dough binds together into a soft dough. If the mixture is too dry add a little milk. Cover in cling film and chill in the fridge for twenty minutes.
• Heat the oven to 180C
• Line flan tin (or tins) with the pastry and bake blind (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/techniques/how-blind-bake-pastry).
• Allow pastry case to cool and then add a generous layer of custard and arrange fruit on top.
• Melt raspberry jam with a teaspoon of water in the microwave and brush over the fruit to glaze.

 

[cupcakechef]

Oh goodness...one thing I crave from living in Australia is custard tarts. I miss them SO much...and I've never seen custard mix here in Japan to make it. I actually got a friend from Australia to send me a box of custard powder over Christmas (she also sent me pre-made store bought Christmas pudding) because to me, Christmas without pudding and custard just doesn't feel right!

These look fab - you did a stellar job!

 

[Autumn_Hearthwitch]

@morning glory that looks absolutely divine and so pretty, I'd almost not want to eat them....ALMOST. The raspberries and blackberries would be a great combination! Now I have had custard before but not the Creme Patissiere, I'll have to try that out. I love tarts and pies and always welcome new recipes. For pie/tart dough, do you find shortening or butter to work better? Do you prefer one to the other? One day I will make a great crust but so far I haven't had any luck and strawberry season is almost upon us as well as rhubarb.

 

[kgord]

That looks so yummy. I have seen similar tarts in the bakery section of a store, but I have never tried making one. I am not sure where we would get the ready
made custard. It might have to be in a shop that catered to bakers. I don't know if I would try to make my own cream that sounds too advanced for me, and I frequently have trouble just with simple things. In my case, I think purchasing as much already prepared would be the way to go. I know you can get those pie tart shells made out of phyllo dough as well, if you didn't want to make them from scratch.

 

[Autumn_Hearthwitch]

Yes @kgord you can get pie shells ready-made which is what I end up doing 3/4 of the time. Maybe not as good as from scratch but pretty darn good anyway. Besides, most of the time if your filling is stellar, no one really notices that you got the pie crust already made. Nowadays it's much more convenient. If you have the time to do scratch then by all means. I don't think you're giving yourself a lot of credit here and I do believe you could make custard. It's really just a matter of watching it, if you don't then you could run into some problems. I'm not going to say it's super easy but I think you could handle it.

 

[Morning Glory]

@morning glory that looks absolutely divine and so pretty, I'd almost not want to eat them....ALMOST. The raspberries and blackberries would be a great combination! Now I have had custard before but not the Creme Patissiere, I'll have to try that out. I love tarts and pies and always welcome new recipes. For pie/tart dough, do you find shortening or butter to work better? Do you prefer one to the other? One day I will make a great crust but so far I haven't had any luck and strawberry season is almost upon us as well as rhubarb.

I often use just shortening but half and half butter/shortening works well and improves the flavour. Of course, you could always but ready-made pastry! But maybe its worth practising just making pastry shells until you get it right. Really, the secret is to only add just enough liquid so the pastry holds together. Its always seems less than you think. Then chill. Then you can roll out between two sheets of cling film to prevent sticking. Good luck! I will attempt a proper Strawberry Pie soon!

 

[Morning Glory]

That looks so yummy. I have seen similar tarts in the bakery section of a store, but I have never tried making one. I am not sure where we would get the ready
made custard. It might have to be in a shop that catered to bakers. I don't know if I would try to make my own cream that sounds too advanced for me, and I frequently have trouble just with simple things. In my case, I think purchasing as much already prepared would be the way to go. I know you can get those pie tart shells made out of phyllo dough as well, if you didn't want to make them from scratch.

I was forgetting you may not get ready made custard in the States. Here it is sold everywhere as people use it to pour over Apple Crumble etc. Its basically cornflour (cornstarch), milk and vanilla flavouring, so you could make your own quite easily. I'll try and post a recipe.

 

[Autumn_Hearthwitch]

Thanks @morning glory, I'll give it a try. I do think I'm making it much more complicated than it actually is. I'm thinking half and half would be the way to go, the cling film is a good idea, it would prevent using too much flour and having a crust that's too dry in the end. I think you'll be fine with that strawberry pie, let me know how it goes if you do attempt it.

 

[Morning Glory]

Thanks @morning glory, I'll give it a try. I do think I'm making it much more complicated than it actually is. I'm thinking half and half would be the way to go, the cling film is a good idea, it would prevent using too much flour and having a crust that's too dry in the end. I think you'll be fine with that strawberry pie, let me know how it goes if you do attempt it.

Yes, the clingfilm avoids adding extra flour and toughening the pastry. I am definitely going to have a bash at the Strawberry Pie and I'll post a photo of the result in due course!

 

[Autumn_Hearthwitch]

Excellent @morning glory, I'm looking forward to seeing a photo and hearing about it. I will likely give it a go myself and apply those little tricks for a nice crust. Hopefully it will turn out! Then again if it does I'll have no excuse to not make any pies and we'll have too many to eat on our hands. I do have an extra deep freeze that might find itself filled to the brim with pies. I'd like to find a good recipe for a meat pie, my mother buys some and they're delicious but I'd prefer making my own.

 

[Morning Glory]

Excellent @morning glory, I'm looking forward to seeing a photo and hearing about it. I will likely give it a go myself and apply those little tricks for a nice crust. Hopefully it will turn out! Then again if it does I'll have no excuse to not make any pies and we'll have too many to eat on our hands. I do have an extra deep freeze that might find itself filled to the brim with pies. I'd like to find a good recipe for a meat pie, my mother buys some and they're delicious but I'd prefer making my own.

It may be a week or so before I can make the pie! I've got so many cooking projects on the go... but make it I will! But you say you want a recipe for a good meat pie. What kind of meat pie? There are so many. I have lots of recipes...

 

[Autumn_Hearthwitch]

It honestly doesn't matter what kind of meat pie @morning glory as long as it's good I'm happy! We have one around here called "tourtiere". It has ground beef and ground pork, onion, garlic, thyme, sage, clove, etc...It's something we make especially around the Holidays. My husbands mother is an excellent cook but she doesn't make her own she buys them. She makes a lot of things but now that I think about it I've never seen her make any kind of pie, savory or otherwise. I'm wondering if she has the same kind of crust problems that I do.

 

[Morning Glory]

It honestly doesn't matter what kind of meat pie @morning glory as long as it's good I'm happy! We have one around here called "tourtiere". It has ground beef and ground pork, onion, garlic, thyme, sage, clove, etc...It's something we make especially around the Holidays. My husbands mother is an excellent cook but she doesn't make her own she buys them. She makes a lot of things but now that I think about it I've never seen her make any kind of pie, savory or otherwise. I'm wondering if she has the same kind of crust problems that I do.

I just looked up the Tourtiere, as I hadn't heard of it. My thought was that it looks very 'dry'. I suppose I'm used to meat pies that ouze thick gravy! That is, apart from pork pies which are eaten cold in the UK. What would you serve it with? Would you have gravy separately?

 

[Autumn_Hearthwitch]

Yes you're quite right @morning glory, tourtiere is actually fairly dry. It's better to consume it freshly made, it has more moisture then. We don't have a gravy separately but I suppose you could make one on the side. A nice beef gravy would pair very well with it I think. Actually, I might try to make one and incorporate a bit of gravy in it, see how that works. Most people would eat it just by itself but I've seen some serve it with boiled potatoes. I've never had pork pies before and you say you eat those cold? Interesting.

 

[Morning Glory]

Yes you're quite right @morning glory, tourtiere is actually fairly dry. It's better to consume it freshly made, it has more moisture then. We don't have a gravy separately but I suppose you could make one on the side. A nice beef gravy would pair very well with it I think. Actually, I might try to make one and incorporate a bit of gravy in it, see how that works. Most people would eat it just by itself but I've seen some serve it with boiled potatoes. I've never had pork pies before and you say you eat those cold? Interesting.

Traditionally served with mustard or pickle. You find them on Pub menus sometimes but every supermarket stocks them. The famous original was made in Melton Mowbray.

Melton Mowbray pork pies are made with a specific "hand-raising" process and recipe. On 4 April 2008 the European Union awarded the Melton Mowbray pork pie Protected Geographical Indication status, following a long-standing application made by the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association. As a result of this ruling pies made only within a designated zone around Melton, and using uncured pork, are allowed to carry the Melton Mowbray name on their packaging.[11]

I've visited a pie shop that makes them in Melton Mowbray and tasted the real thing! A good pork pie has set gelatine around the edges.