Why does it feel like it’s already June. The sun is glaring down at us, making this city feel like a furnace and making me dream about winter again. The only part I like about summer is vacationing - last year I went to Europe, and it was the best 3 weeks of my year! In amsterdam, I ate dutch fries with mayo and waffles with chocolate - for breakfast (hey, its acceptable on vacations!) After a very debauch week in amsterdam and berlin, I joined my family in Paris, where I took a french cooking class, and then went on a short tour of portugal - and obviously ate Portuguese custard cups every day.
I spent majority of my holiday foraging for the best local food in each city, and one of the bakeries in paris had these really delicious raspberry jam tarts. Its no secret that I adore raspberries, especially with dark chocolate. I pretty much really like all berries.
These blackberry tarts came into being because of an abundance of blackberries in my fridge. The idea was inspired by a photograph I saw on Food 52, but I couldn’t seem to track the recipe down so I made up my own. Also - I’ve never cooked with blackberries before (!!) so this recipe was kind of a hit and miss but to my pleasant surprise, it worked out pretty well (in other words, nothing exploded in the oven, I dont have sticky, jammy blackberries on my floors). It tastes like a nice balance of tangy and sweet, and has a nice crunchy-biscuity tart shell. A scoop of vanilla ice cream goes really nicely with this if you ask me, but I have a suspicion it would also taste great with coconut ice cream or a dollop of sweetened whipped cream.
Without further ado, here’s the recipe:
Tart dough:
175 g all purpose flour
100 g unsalted butter, cold, chopped into pieces
50 g sugar
1 large egg yolk, beaten
4 tsp water
First, pre-heat your oven to 180˚ C
Mix the flour and butter together with your fingers until the mixture is crumb-y
Add in the sugar and stir
Add the beaten egg yolk and 4 tsp water
Mix until the mixture comes together to form a a soft dough
Transfer to a floured surface and knead until smooth
Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about an hour.
Take out the dough and roll onto a floured surface.
Cut out a disc and place in the tart shell. Use your fingers to shape it into place.
Refrigerate until your filling is ready.
For the Blackberry filling
1 cup blackberries
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cornflour
pinch of salt
For the filling, in a saucepan over medium heat, mix the blackberries and butter until the butter melts completely.
Now add the corn syrup, lemon juice and corn flour and salt, and mix until completely dissolved.
Set aside.
When cool, spoon the mixture into the cooled tart shell.
Top with the crumble
For the crumble:
3 tbsp cold butter, cut into cubes
6 tbsp flour
3 tbsp light brown sugar
pinch of salt
Combine 3 tbsp butter, 6 tbsp flour and 3 tbsp sugar and mix with hands till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle on top of the filled tart before placing in the oven.
Bake in the oven for about 12 - 15 minutes or until the tart shell and crumble are a deep-golden.
Take out of the oven and let it cool before inverting.
Eat with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
ENJOYYYYYYYYY