Friday, June 4, 2010

Breakfast of Champions - Berry Tartlets!

Nothing like a balanced breakfast of thick flaky pastry and sweet ripe berries! It's like individual pies for your morning enjoyment...

I used a mix of fresh and frozen berries, all with no added sugar! Tho in a pinch one could use a good jam instead. With spring strawberries showing up my next batch will feature those! Most of the berries were whole, but the largest black berries were cut in half (which stains the fingers a nice indigo)

I made a standard pie crust pastry, salted butter and flour. For a light but still nutty tasting crust use whole wheat pastry flour, or mix half and half whole wheat and white flour. Cut it together with a pastry tool, and add just enough cold milk to convince the whole mass to coalesce. You can cover and put in the fridge overnight for an easier to work with dough, but we who have more skill than patience just soldier on...

Roll out your dough with just enough flour to avoid a sticky mess. Cut out a circle of dough using the pan as a guide. I happen to have pot pie pans, because you can make a lovely tart in a pie pan, but a terrible pot pie in a tart pan! The dough needn't extend up the sides so just the diameter of the tin is fine.

Plop a few spoonfuls of your berry mix into each tin and fold down the sides to just curl over the berries. Put them in a preheated oven (to 300F or thereabouts) and bake until the top edges brown and the berries are dark. An awesome treat, and not super sweet, so if you want to serve them for dessert add a pile of fresh whipped cream to the top!

Enjoy them hot (with ice cream perhaps!?), or wait until the next day, they will still be just wonderful. I great way to pair the fruits of the season and a crisp yummy crust...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

looks super yummy! i love your blog! (found it while searching for other denver-area crafty blogs to read)