Berries and stone fruits are the stars of the proverbial summer dessert repertoire. Even though this year’s summer climate has been difficult for most farmers–witness the late start of juicy-ripe tomatoes and corn just trickling into market stands–berries have done OK. We had a brief, short array of strawberries, and I haven’t seen a box of those cherished berries for several weeks. Well, not necessarily. Some farmers have rotating crops for a second and third crop, but none seem to make it to markets in Greater Portland.
For a strawberry fix all summer travel to Beth’s Farm Market in Warren on Western Road, a hilly verdant slope of gorgeous farmscape that promises great rewards. Last week the counters were awash with strawberries as well as raspberries and wild blueberries. Other markets hither and yon in regions south of Portland or north of the usual tangle of Brunswick and Bath markets, you might find strawberries still. I haven’t been to Bath farmer’s market yet nor Saco and Kennebunk, the latter starring Kelly Orchards peaches very soon.
Luscious double strawberry tart
Earlier in the summer I made all those variations of strawberry pie. (Note, look in the search bar and type in “strawberries” and you’ll find my variations on strawberry pie.) I picked up several boxes at Beth’s and wracked my brain of what could I do differently.
A baking book that I haven’t looked at in years is Paula Peck’s “The Art of Fine Baking.” I’ve made her great rendition of blueberry pie so often I know it by memory. I did it this past week but used my own recipe for the tart dough. I enrich the pastry with sugar and egg yolk and just a tablespoon of lard in addition to the butter. It results in an extremely flakey pastry that melts in your mouth.
I was curious about her method for strawberries in a tart shell. One variation that she offered was filling the base with pastry cream and topping it with whole strawberries. glazed with red-current jelly. I’ve done my own version many times. Her other tart recipe is quite different. Instead of pastry cream covering the bottom of the tart shell she advises to use ground almonds as a base and then adding sliced berries on top, covering them completely with the red currant glaze. Then you top it with whole berries and glaze those too.
It’s a gorgeous pie. And I’m calling it Double Strawberry Tart adapted from Paula Peck’s recipe.
The blueberry tart is another winner and I’ve incorporated it in the space here.
Blueberry tart
The blueberry pie is utter simplicity. You’ll need 4 cups blueberries (wild or high bush). Cook 1 1/2 cups blueberries, 3/8 cup sugar, grated rind of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cook over low heat, stirring until the sugar is melted. Then raise the heat to high and boil vigorously until the blueberries thicken and acquire the consistency of jam, about 5 to 7 minutes Cool. Carefully combine the raw blueberries with the cooled jam, mixing gently. Sp0on into the tart shell (see recipe below) . Decorate with a few raspberries (optional).
Peaches are up next time and I discovered a really terrific method for a super-easy peach ice cream that defies a lot of fuss. Will post it soon when peaches are at the markets.
Ingredients
- Pastry
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- Pinch salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon farm lard or shortening if lard is not available
- 1 egg yolk, beaten
- Water
- Filling
- 1 quart strawberries
- 2/3 cup finely ground walnuts, pecans or walnuts
- About 1 cup red current jelly, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Pastry Put the flour, sugar and pinch of salt into the workbowl of a food processor. Pulse briefly to mix.
- Cut the butter into cubes and the lard or shortening into small pieces and add to workbowl. Pulse 6 times.
- Mix the beaten egg with enough water until it measures 1/4 cup. Add this to workbowl and pulse a few times until the dough comes together. Add drops of water if necessary until mixture is moderately moist.
- Dump out onto a floured work surface and form into a cohesive mass. Give it one push to knead and shape into a ball, wrap in plastic and with the back of your own hand flatten the dough into a disk about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, preferably 1 hour.
- Roll out, line a 9-inch tart pan with the dough, trimming the edge. Put into the freezer for at least an hour or longer.
- Put on a baking sheet lined with parchment and then crumple up a sheet of parchment paper and fit over the pastry case and fill it with rice or beans. Bake for 20 minutes or until the dough begins to color around the edge. Carefully remove the parchment and beans or rice and put the shell back into the oven to brown for about 10 minutes or until nicely golden. Remove, allow to cool on a wrack before assembling the tart.
- Filling Scatter ground nuts on the bottom of the prebake tart shell. Press them into gently but firmly.
- Slice 2 cups strawberries into quarter-inch thick slices and put these over the nuts. Thoroughly glaze the berries with the melted jelly. Then add the rest of the whole berries. Glaze these with the jelly. You may not need all of it.
- It's a very rich pie so you won't need anything else on it, other then a dollop of whipped cream for each serving.
Notes
The recipe is an adaptation of Paula Peck's Strawberry Tart. But I substituted my tart dough.
