Canadian Northwest Territories Berry Tarts

Olha's Note:

Wild berries such as mossberries or wild blueberries add a true taste of the North to these creamy treats. The recipe is inspired by similar tarts from the Alpine Bakery in Whitehorse.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 24 tarts

SWEET PASTRY

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon gratedorange rind or 1 teaspoon lemon rind
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2⁄3; cup cold butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon ice water
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

FILLING

• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon gratedorange rind or 1 teaspoon lemon rind
• 1 ½ cups sour cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups wild blueberries

Directions:

1. SWEET PASTRY: In large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, orange rind and salt. With pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until crumbly.
2. Whisk together eggs, water and lemon juice; drizzle over flour mixture, tossing with fork until moist enough to shape into ball (dough will be slightly sticky). Flatten into disc; wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 3 days. Let soften to room temperature before rolling.
3. On generously floured pastry cloth and using stockinette-covered rolling pin, roll out half of the pastry at a time to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 3 1/2 inch rounds; ease into shallow 2 3/4 inch tart shells. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Line each tart shell with foil; fill with pie weights or dry beans. Bake in 400°F oven for about 10 minutes or until light golden and firm. Remove foil and weights; let cool.
5. FILLING: In bowl, combine sugar, flour and orange rind; blend in sour cream and egg yolk. Spoon about 1 tablespoons berries (mossberries or wild blueberries) into each tart shell; cover with about 1 tablespoons filling and top with 3 or 4 berries. Bake in 350°F oven for about 20 minutes or until pastry is golden and filling is set. Let stand for 1 minute. Remove from pan and let cool on racks. Makes about 24 tarts.
6. The Canadian Living Entertaining Cookbook.

Reviews

[DancesInGarden]

The dough turned out quite hard after baking. Although it smelled heavenly of lemon before baking, the shells had almost no lemon aroma nor flavour after baking. Also, the edges got very dark during the blind baking, even though they had been chilled. Perhaps my dough was just too warm all around. The custard was more interesting, but for some reason we cycled between loving it (as in "I wonder if I can bake this in a custard cup brulee style?") to not really liking it. The bites with a blueberry made us want more, the bites of plain custard were just so so. The lemon zest in the custard imparted an almost medicinal flavour, not what I expected since I truly like the combo of lemon and blueberry. All in all, they sounded and looked much better than they tasted. I might try again, maybe using the orange peel option to see if that makes a difference. Sorry. If I try again and get better results I will surely adjust this rating.