Tart with berries and lemon curd
I went to the Farmers' Market in Playa Vista this morning and bought a triple pack of berries that I would like to use on a tart. I've had the tart pans since I lived in Venice and have never used them. I got quart cartons each of blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries and thought I would make a lemon curd to go under the berries, although my tart pans are only about 3/4 inch high. Here's a recipe from Ina Garten that I was thinking of using, but she did not put fruit on hers. I guess I will have to adjust the recipe to make it fit, but I have one 10" and three 4-1/2" pans. I can make extra crust and then I think the filling would be correct, but I am unsure of what to do with the berries. Do they go on raw, or should they be cooked in syrup? How do you make a glaze for them if they are raw? I would want to use jam or jelly, and I'm sure I can find some in my pantry, but it's not something I use often.
I was thinking of adapting my Cherry Cream Crunch recipe to accommodate berries instead of cherries, but I do not know whether this would be a good idea or not. I have all the ingredients - here is that recipe:
Cherry Cream Crunch
Cherry pie filling:*
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups fresh pitted cherries
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Crust:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup flaked or shredded coconut, unsweetened
1 cup granola (or oatmeal or rice flakes**)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Lemon filling:
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 can (15 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 tbsp grated lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
Cherry pie filling:
Combine sugar and lemon juice in a bowl, stir, add cherries, and let sit for at least 6 hours, stirring occasionally. Drain off and reserve cherry syrup.
Combine a small amount of syrup to cornstarch to make a paste, then stir cornstarch paste back into syrup. Pour mixture into a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the sauce thickens. Stir in the drained cherries. Cool before using.
Crust:
Cream butter in a large mixing bowl; gradually add brown sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Sift flour, salt and cinnamon; add to butter mixture. Stir in coconut, granola, and walnuts. Press 2-1/2 cups of crumb mixture into bottom of ungreased 9x13 inch baking dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.
Lemon filling:
Prepare the lemon filling by combining the slightly beaten eggs, sweetened condensed milk, grated lemon rind, fresh lemon juice and salt. Stir until mixture thickens. Remove crust from the oven and spread with lemon filling. Spoon the cherry pie filling over the lemon filling and then sprinkle with the remaining crumb mixture. Return to oven and bake at 375 degrees 15 to 18 minutes or until delicately browned. Chill before serving. May be served topped with whipped cream. Serves 9 to 12.
*You can substitute 1 can (1 lb 4 oz.) of canned cherry pie filling
**If using oatmeal or rice flakes instead of granola, increase brown sugar to 1/2 cup.
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What would you do to make a tart with the berries that I have? Would you make Ina's lemon curd (or some variation of that), or do you have a different preference. I want something custardy under the fruit, and I was unsure which custard recipe to use.
I also bought some very nice lettuce, celery, and dill at the Farmers' Market, but I did not see any tomatoes, even though I have ripening tomatoes in my yard. We had lunch there also even though it was quite cold for sitting outside (58 degrees) and no heating. Fortunately, it is very sunny and clear today with no wind, and so we were able to endure the temperature. Actually, it felt warm in the sun because I was wearing a navy blue sweat jacket.
Lars
You can do it a number of ways. You can put some of them into the curd when you put it into the oven and bake it that way. If you like the starchy kind of texture you get when you cook the cherries with the cornstarch, you can do that too. Alternatively, you can put them on the cooled pie once it's baked and then brush them with an apricot glaze, which will look nice and then you don't have to cook the fresh berries.
Which crust do you think would better for the berries - the standard pie crust or the granola one. I'm probably going to make Ina's pie crust. I am considering Emeril's lemon curd recipe with raw fruit on top. I have cream I can whip for on top, if I do not use it for a quiche tomorrow.
Lars
Lars, I was in Westchester, LA a week ago. I asked my friend to take me to the farmers market, it was on a Wednesday, when we got there, there was no farmers market. I was disappointed.
dcarch
We just had strawberry shortcake with fresh, tasty berries from the farmer's market. YUMMMMM!
I think that Cherry Crunch sounds delicious! I'm going to make that one day. I have made Ann T's white chocolate, raspberry tart, here is a picture of the one I made, but the recipe is on her blog. I know you don't eat much dairy, but I like the styling of her tart and the berries were cooked in the filling. My pan is 10" x 3/4".
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](http://s5.beta.photobucket.com/user/Gardeniapetunia/media/House%20and%20Garden/raspberrycreamcheesetart.jpg.html)
I love this simple tart recipe, originally from Martha. I frequently sub different fruit and it works fine.
Rustic Cherry-Almond Tart
Makes 1 9-inch tart
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (17 1/4 oz.) thawed
5 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 c plus 4 t sugar
1/2 c blanched almond flour (I usually make my own unblanched in the food processor)
1 large whole egg
1/2 t pure almond extract
1 large egg yolk
1 T heavy cream
1 lb red cherries, stemmed and pitted
Heat oven to 425�. On lightly floured parchment paper, roll out puff pastry to 1/8' thick. Cut a 12 inch circle; roll the edges to form a 10' crust. Transfer the parchment paper and crust to a baking sheet and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
In a bowl, mix the softened butter, 1/3 c sugar, almond flour, whole egg, and almond extract until well combined.
In a separate bowl, beat together the egg yolk and heavy cream. Prick the chilled crust all over with a fork. Brush the cream/yolk mixture on the surface and edges of the crust. Spread the almond mixture evenly over the crust, and chill for another 15 minutes.
Spread the cherries over the tart. Bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining 4 teaspoons of sugar over the tart. Bake an additional 5-10 minutes until the crust edges are a deep golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Beautiful pie, Bumblebeez!
dcarch
Thank you dc! But I only copied what Ann did, it's not original to me.
Dcarch, the Westchester farmers' market is from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM on Wednesdays, and so if you got there after 1:00 PM, it was too late. The Culver City market is one of the best and is on Tuesday from 2:00 to 7:00 PM. Kevin can go there during his lunch hour, but it's a busy market. The ones in Hollywood and Santa Monica are also good and are on week-ends, but are also crowded. The one in Playa Vista was nice because it was so small, easy to park, and there was still plenty to buy, although I would have liked to have bought some tomatoes.
I want to make the tart in my tart pans, and so I might adapt a recipe Nancy posted some time ago. I had a problem reading it before because the fractions got garbled by the code, but I was able to straighten that out when I found the source recipe, which she listed as Tapawingo.
I would like to make Ann's tart, but I don't have white chocolate, and I'd like to make this with what I have on hand now.
Thanks for the recipes - I'm making a collection for future use!
Lars
I think it depends on how sweet your fruit is. If it's lovely, then the lemon curd would be nice. If it's a little tart, then a creme patissiere would be much nicer. Either way, I think te fruit should be raw.
Lars, so that's what happened. We went there after lunch. It upset my plan for making dinner that day.
We passed by a marina not too far and look at funny boat names. I like Miss Demeanor. :-)
Returning home a neighbor's kid was selling lemonade and gave me a ton of fresh lemons from her yard. So many dishes that evening were lemon based.
dcarch
publik - as far as the crust goes, I'd make a p�te sucr�e if baking the curd in the oven or p�te bris�e if using the curd the way you were discussing.
Roses, I have pretty much decided to make the pate sucree that you recommend - I think that is what Ina Garten has in her recipe, and I will use a lemon curd on top of that.
Yesterday I had to do some emergency gardening to protect my orchids, and while I was at the nursery, I bought some pea gravel to use as pie weights, but I had to sort the gravel (I sifted it through a pizza screen to remove smaller gravel pieces), and then I washed it several times. Anyway, this took up more time than I expected, but I am now ready to bake the crust!
Lars
I finally made the tart this evening, but we had already eaten some of the blackberries - they were very good and sweet. I combined Ina Garten's recipe with a recipe from Anne Burrell at the same web site because neither one seemed exactly right, and Ina's recipe got some reviews that said that Anne's recipe was better. I could tell from the recipes that the lemon curd was not going to fit in my 10" tart pan as they said it would, and so I ended up having to eat some of the excess lemon curd that I made by itself from the pan.
The tart is chilling in the fridge in the garage, and so we have not cut it yet - Kevin says he cannot eat anything sugary late at night, as it will keep him up - I do not have that problem but am willing to wait to cut it because it does need more time to chill. If I like it, I'm going to have to write a new recipe for it because it needs further revisions in proportions. The gravel worked very well as pie weights, however.
Lars
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](http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/cooking/msg0118253725130.0101462324416.jpg)
Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit tart photos
That is a beautiful thing, it looks so very perfect. Impossible for it not to taste great. Yum. It is early morning here, but I have no time restrictions on desserts, wish I had a slice of it here.
That's a beautiful tart and those blackberries do look perfect. Excess lemon filling is not a bad thing!
It's a thing of beauty, but it will be gone in a minute.
dcarch
Lars, that looks so yummy to me right now! It's nearly lunch time and I'd love to just have a big slice of your tart rather than the sandwich we're planning. :)
/tricia
Lars, that is one beautiful tart. I saw it earlier on FB.
~Ann
Thanks for the compliments - I wasn't being that careful when I put the berries on - if I hadn't been so tired and if it hadn't been so late, I would have arranged them better, but I felt that they're just going to get eaten anyway.
If it tastes good, I'll post the recipe for how I made it with the adjustments I had to make. I already know that I like the lemon curd part of it.
I don't go on FB that much, but I do communicate with different people there - mostly family and local friends.
Lars
I just had some of the tart with some friends at work - they loved it, but I think it needs some revision. First of all, the lemon curd was too sweet, but I think this is because I used Meyer lemons, and I will adjust for that in the future. The other problem was that the edge crust was a bit hard - still tasty and good to eat, but a bit difficult to cut. I think the problem here is that I started the crust at 425 degrees for 11 minutes with the aluminum foil and pie weights and then returned it to the oven for 17 minutes with the oven turned down to 350 degrees. The recipe that called for a 425 oven expected me to put the curd in the crust for the second baking, but I decided not to do that because I knew it was not going to fit, and I had already adjusted the curd recipe so that it would not require baking after being cooked on the stovetop. Also, I took the shortcut of not chilling the dough as long as the recipe called for, but I don't think this would have caused the crust to come out hard. Anyway, no one complained about the crust being hard, and so maybe I just need to serve it with a knife in addition to a fork - the forks were plastic, which didn't help.
I pretty much followed Anne Burrell's recipe, except that I used four eggs plus one egg white in the curd plus one tablespoon of cornstarch to help it set without baking. I did refer to Ina's recipe as well, especially the part about pricking the inside of the shell after removing the pie weights. Actually, I forgot to do that before the second baking, but I pricked it after baking to deflate it.
One tip of my own that I added was to add the lemon zest to the curd just before cooking it, and I stirred it in with a spoon instead of a whisk.
Let me know what suggestions you have regarding the crust.
Thanks!
Lars