blueberry almond tart

I live just across the river from Washington, DC. You may have heard that we had record-breaking weather last weekend? 2+ feet of snow. While we were snowed in I made bagels from scratch, and I had plans to make a blueberry almond tart, but time got away from me (read: I just wasn’t motivated enough). Last night I finally got my act together and baked before the blueberries spoiled. Yay!


Blueberry Almond Tart (crust recipe from King Arthur Flour, filling from Hummingbird High)

INGREDIENTS
Crust
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup almond meal (I buy mine at Trader Joe’s)

Tart filling
6 oz. (about 2/3 cup) sour cream
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
10 ounces (1 dry pint) fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried


DIRECTIONS
Crust
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9” tart pan liberally with cooking spray, and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, butter, salt, and extracts. Add the flour and almond meal, stirring to make crumbs that cling together when squeezed.

Dump the dough out into the prepared tart pan, and press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides with your fingers.  Once the dough looks uniform, prick all over with a fork.  Freeze the crust for 15 minutes, then put it in the oven to bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.


Tart
Increase the oven temperature to 400°F.  Place the cooled crust on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and set aside.

Whisk together the sour cream, heavy cream, egg, sugar, and almond extract until well combined.

Pour the filling into the prepared crust. Evenly distribute the blueberries over the custard. If too many berries remain at the surface, gently push them into the filling so that you have just one layer of blueberries at the top.

Bake until the filling has set and the crust is golden, about 25 minutes. The custard is set when its center wobbles just a bit, while the outside remains puffed up and set.

Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm, or chilled from the refrigerator.


It looks fantastic – so the question is, does the taste measure up? It is delicious. And, if we’re being honest, maybe a smidgen too sweet for my taste. If I were to make it again, I’d probably take the sugar in the crust down to 1/3 cup, and double (or times and a half) the amount of custard filling so that the sweetness of the crust is offset a bit more by the creaminess of the tart.

But what about flavors?!  Actually, the almond comes through really well, but not too strong – that part is perfect.  And the berries were just the right amount sweet. Baked blueberries pop open on your tongue like a surprise, you know?  So the flavors were great.  Plus, this is a freaking beautiful food item.  Looks like it belongs in a display case, you know?  So I’ll definitely be breaking out the recipe again, possibly with other berry variations.


Recommended for: a sweet afternoon treat to pair with coffee, as a beautiful (and fancy!) finish to a home-cooked meal, or for any occasion where you want to impress your guests.

Interested in other food-related posts? Check out Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking!

7 comments:

Beth F said...

I agree this is a beautiful dish. The fruit is there, front and center. So glad the taste was good too, but I'll take your advice and cut the sugar. I like the natural sweetness of the fruit more than the added sugar.

Mae Travels said...

Blueberries look so out-of-season in the middle of Snowzilla... but we have the most incredible grocery supplies in the history of humanity, don't we? That looks really appealing; too bad it was a bit sweeter than you like.

best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

(Diane) bookchickdi said...

Your tart looks soooo good! I'm glad you made it through the snowstorm.

Cecelia said...

@Beth F: Totally agree. I think the sugar is totally adjustable.

@Mae Travels: Right?!? But they were on sale - so they're in season somewhere!

@Diane: Thanks so much!

Kristen M. said...

I bought a bulk bag of blueberries from my CSA last year and have been looking for ideas to use them other than my standard blueberry pancakes and waffles. I don't know if they would work quite right in this because of the weirdness of thawed blueberries but now you have me thinking about ways to make it work. This sounds so yummy!

Liviania said...

That is gorgeous! I'll have to try making this.

Ryan said...

When I took my blogging break, one of the things I missed was your food posts, this just looks damn good.

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