What's an Estonian girl to write about French blueberry tart? No real excuse, apart from the fact that I had a box of wild Estonian bilberries in my freezer and I wanted to make something that really highlight these delicious berries. The resulting cake was delicious and elegant in its simplicity, and I wanted to share the recipe with my blog friends :)
Bilberry or European blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L), is related to high-bush blueberries (Vaccinium Cyanococcus) mostly known and cultivated in the US. I must admit I always thought these two were the same thing - until I bought some cultivated blueberries in Scotland and were surprised to see that the berries where greenish-white inside, and not dark purple, as the berries I had always picked in Estonia. So now I know that when it's white inside, it's a blueberry, when it's purple inside, it's a bilberry.
Both work well in this lovely berry tart. Serve with a sprinkling of icing sugar, and some whipped cream or creme fraiche on the side.
French Blueberry Tart
(Prantsuse mustikapirukas)
Serves six to eight
300-350 g sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe below)
400 g blueberries or bilberries
75 g sugar
1 Tbsp potato starch or cornflour
icing sugar, to serve
For the pastry:
100 g cold unsalted butter
70 g sugar
1 small egg
1/3 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
170 g plain/all-purpose flour
To make the pastry, put all the ingredients into the food processor and process into small crumbs. Using your hands, press into a disk, and place to the fridge for 30 minutes to rest. Then roll out and line a 24-25 cm springform tin with it (incl. about 1 inch up the sides). (Or use your favourite sweet tart pastry or pâte sablée recipe - you need about 300-350 g).
For the filling, stir sugar and potato starch/cornflour into blueberries, pour onto the cake tin.
Bake in a pre-heated 200 C oven for about 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden and baked.
Cool completely before serving - otherwise the filling is a bit runny.
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