When You've Got Blueberries, Protect Yourself From That Cyclosporias Bug, And Bake A French Blueberry Custard Tart!

I Mean, If You Absolutely Have To Have An Excuse

Well, the World Cup has finally been put to bed for the next 4 years, and in the end, I’m glad Spain won . I’ve got cousins in both countries so it was a toss up. Actually it’s hard to find a soccer playing country I don’t have cousins in, so of course we watched and enjoyed the last two slivers of this tart.

I originally bought the blueberries to be eaten raw and then with all the news of That Parasite, and all the advice that every fruit and veg needed to be thoroughly washed and cooked to be safe, I decided to use them in a tart. Believe me, it was no sacrifice. We have a French neighbor down the road and they were over for a movie and dessert so why not a French Blueberry tart, with homemade creme fraiche?

I’ve made a lot of blueberry tarts in my life, mainly plain blueberries topped with ice cream

But that’s not French, so I scouted around a bunch of recipes for the French version of a blueberry tart and voila! I found a blueberry custard tart that sounded perfect. Made with a pate sucree crust and a simple custard base it was simply easy, and simply delicious. So here it is!

French Blueberry Custard Tart

Here’s What You Need:

A 10 or 11 inch tart pan with a removable bottom

For The Crust:

1/2 cup (one stick) of unsalted butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 egg at room temp

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

240 grams (8.5 oz) of all purpose flour

2 Tbs of almond flour (optional but I think it helps)

For The Tart:

About 3 cups of blueberries

2 Tbs almond flour

2 Tbs sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

4oz whole milk

2 Tbs whipping cream

Here’s What To Do

FIRST THE CRUST:

Using a stand mixer cream the butter , sugar, salt, and vanilla together. Use the paddle attachment and mix it together until it’s pale and creamy. This can also be done by hand!

Set your mixer on low and add the egg yolks and flour gradually, just keep mixing. Make sure you use a spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl at some point so everything is mixed together completely.

As soon as it’s all combined, stop! You don’t want to over mix this dough. Just roll it into a ball, wrap it in saran, and po it into the fridge for about an hour.

NOW THE TART:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Roll the chilled dough out on a lightly floured surface. You want to roll it out so that it’s a bit larger than your tart pan, and I’ll let you know know you are going to have about 1/3 of this dough left over, plenty for some extra individual tarts at some later point. you can refrigerate the extra dough, (but use it in the next couple of days) or freeze it and it’ll last for quite a while.

Lightly grease your tart pan sides and bottom

Roll the dough out till it’s about 1/8 of an inch thick, then pick it up and drape it over your pan gently, push it down carefully, tuck it into the sides and bottom of the pan well, then use your rolling pin and roll it over the top of the tart pan for a nice finish on the sides. Remove the excess dough, roll it up and refrigerate or freeze it. Poke the tart dough on the bottom with a fork so that it stays down while baking. Cut a circular piece of parchment paper and lay it gently into the tart shell, and pour baking balls or beans into the parchment paper

Pop it into the oven and blind bake it for 15 minutes;. While that’s going on gently wash and dry the blueberries. Set them aside. When 15 minutes have passed remove the pie crust from the oven, take out the baking beads, or beans, remove the parchment paper, and let the crust cool while you prep the filling. DON’T turn off your oven, this is going back in!

In a small bowl whisk together the almond flour, sugar, vanilla, egg yolks, cream and milk until you have a smooth mixture. Arrange the now dry blueberries in the bottom of the pan, and pour the custard mixture over them

Be careful pouring the custard, you just want it to cover the blueberries, don’t go all the way to the top, that way leads to spill overs!

Pop it in the oven and bake for between 30 and 35 minutes, you want the custard to set.

When it’s done, take it out and let it cool for at least 15 minutes before removing it from the tart pan

Boy, was this a hit! It’s always a thrill to satisfy a Frenchman. I served it with homemade creme fraiche (recipe’s coming) and we finished off the last two pieces watching the World Cup this afternoon!

This is such an easy recipe I’m going to be using the left over dough and my spare blueberries and I’ll be making minitarts this week! So, stick around.

Coming up next I bought a watermelon so buckle up for watermelon granita with smoked mesquite salt and watermelon mousse, two ways of safely enjoying fresh fruit!

Meanwhile, need help??? I’m always around for questions and comments and requests, just give me a shout out. I really appreciate everyone who’s following along and subscribed, any questions, requests , just drop me a note, an email, a tweet, skeet, spout, or whatever your means of communication are. I’m listening. And remember, around here it’s always okay to play with your food!

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