With May just around the corner, I’m looking forward to loads of fresh berries. When we have fresh berries from our CSA or our local farm stand, we don’t want to let them go to waste. And while berries are wonderful to grace our yogurt, cereal, oatmeal, or just to eat by the handful, sometimes we need to put them to use in a bigger way. If you’re looking for a beautiful sweet treat way to use a bounty of berries, a lovely treat to end a meal, look no further. This tart was an awesome way to use up some extra berries.
For our Easter this year, in our shelter-at-home mode, we ordered most of what we needed through Instacart. And it worked great! Hubby ordered from Costco, including strawberries and blueberries. So after we used them for our Easter breakfast, we still had a bunch leftover. I considered freezing them, since I love using frozen berries in my smoothies, but then, I had a hankering for pie or pastry of some kind. This tart is a result of that craving. I’m so glad I tried this!
I love this tart recipe! It seems like it would be quite versatile, as I’m sure it can be used with a variety of berries or other fruits as well. I particularly enjoy the combination of strawberries and blueberries, though, for the beautiful colors as well as the flavor. I’m thinking if we just top this tart with a few dollops of whipped cream, we’d have a beautiful red, white, and blue dessert for Independence Day.
I especially like the fact that this fresh berry tart can be made ahead of time. While it’s delicious still slightly warm from the oven, we also enjoy it cold the next day. This sweet pastry dough is easier to work with than many pie pastries. It makes a nice, sturdy base for the tart, so you can even pick up a slice with your fingers and eat it straight out of your hand. But I highly recommend putting it on a plate with a side of vanilla or coconut ice cream or whipped cream.
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This fresh strawberry and blueberry tart is perfect for spring. You can substitute other berries if you wish as long as you use the same quantity (about 3 cups total), but I really love the combination of strawberries and blueberries. Not only is it delicious, it’s just so pretty! Allow the tart to cool for about an hour before serving to make sure the filling is set and you’ll get nice, clean slices. Serve all by itself, or with a dollop of whipped cream or scoop of ice cream.
Ingredients
PASTRY
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose organic flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
FILLING
- 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries,rinsed, dried and sliced
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cold butter
- 2 tablespoons seedless raspberry or strawberry jam
Instructions
TART PASTRY:
- Put sliced butter and sugar into the food processor and pulse until they are well combined. Add vanilla, then add one egg and yolk of second egg, then pulse again until well incorporated.
- Sift the flour and salt together, then add to the mixture in the food processor. Pulse until mixture comes together into a ball. If the mixture seems dry after about 30 seconds, add just small bits of water until it comes together.
- Turn the dough out onto plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Wrap well and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
- Remove chilled dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough so that it is about 2 inches larger than the tart pan all around. The dough should be about 1/4 inch thick.
- Carefully transfer pastry into the pan by rolling the dough onto the rolling pin and gently centering it into the pan. Gently press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan, making sure to press it into the bottom edges, and gently pressing the dough against the sides of the pan. Then trim the top edge of the pastry just slightly above the edge of the pan and press down to make a solid edge for the tart.
- Refrigerate the tart pastry until you’re ready to fill it.
FILL AND BAKE
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
- In a small bowl, mix the sugar and lemon zest together, using the back of a spoon or your fingers.
- In a large bowl toss the berries with the sugar/zest mixture, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of flour. Transfer filling into the tart pastry shell. Cut the tablespoon of butter into tiny pieces and scatter over the fruit filling.
- Bake until the tart shell is golden brown and the filling is bully (about an hour). Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool about an hour, or until filling is set.
- Melt the jam in a small saucepan. Using a pastry brush, spread the warm melted jam over the top of the tart.
- Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if desired.
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