Mixed Berry Tart

A few nights ago, we had some friends of ours over for dinner.  Since Elizabeth is expecting, I asked her if she had any food aversions of cravings.  She said she's really just craving lots of fruits and vegetables.   (Why couldn't I have craved fresh fruits and vegetables instead of pretty much anything that had no nutritional value?)  I decided to scrap my plans to make a six layer malted and toasted marshmallow cake and make a mixed berry tart.   Although its not quite berry season, all this warm weather in Atlanta has had me thinking spring and summer.   We were also have a pretty heavy meal of braised short ribs with mascarpone polenta, so I thought a lighter dessert was in order.

I've been wanting to make a tart for some time, but didn't have a good tart pan.   This was a good excuse to make a trip to Williams Sonoma.   I had put it off because pastry makes me so nervous, specifically anything that has to be rolled.  But this crust is so easy to come together and requires no rolling.    The perfect place to start for me!   A no fuss dessert that looks impressive and tastes delicious.  Who doesn't need more of that?

The pastry cream was delicious. I love pastry cream and had never realized how easy it was to make.  A little too easy, I fear.  And the different ways you can mix it up it are endless.   You can swap out the vanilla extract for any variety of flavors.   The recipe I used called for chambord for  a raspberry pastry cream, but I didn't want to give my dear pregnant friend a boozy dessert.   I think I would love this with lemon extract and some fresh lemon zest.

Mixed Berry Tart
adapted from myrecipes.com
Pastry Cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstartch
3 tablespoon flour
pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter


In a large sauce pan, mix the sugar, cornstarch, flour and salt.  Whisk in milk then add the egg and egg yolks.  Whisk until smooth .  Place over high heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture boils and becomes quite thick, about 4-6 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in extract and butter.  Pour mixture through a strainer into a medium bowl; set the bowl in an ice bath and stir often until the cream is cooled, about 12 minutes.   Keep chilled.


Butter Crust
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, chilled, cut into small cubes
1 large egg yolk

Preheat the oven to 300∘.  In a food processor or bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt.  Add the butter.  Pulse (or rub with your fingers) until fine crumbs form.  Add the egg yolk, pulse (or mix) until dough holds together.    Firmly press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of a 10 inch tart pan with a removable rim.   Bake until golden, 25-30 minutes.  Let cool completely.

For final assembly, pour the pastry cream into the baked shell and smooth it out.  Top with 3 cups of mixed berries.   Once the tart is assembled, remove the rim of the tart pan carefully.