Summer Berry tart with Pastry cream in puff pastry

Another thing we picked up at the Farmer's market on Saturday were three beautiful baskets of berries. Many of the stands had berries, including gooseberry which you don't often see here. After a taste sample we chose Blackberries, Raspberries and pink currants.

After much pondering, hemming annd hawing, 'Should I make a fool, a crumble, a pie?', I decided a puff pastry tart would be light and would give me the most berry with the least crust. Whole foods sells a frozen brand of puff pastry that is excellent and I apologise for not writing the name down while I had the package, maybe next time. A quick glance at Julia for pastry cream and I was off and running.

Summer Berry tart with Pastry cream in puff pastry

1 Puff pastry
3 cups of various berries
2 TBS sugar
2 TBS grand Marnier
1 batch of Pastry Cream
Egg wash (1 whipped egg with 1 tsp water)

Cut dough into a rectangle and lay on lightly greased cookie sheet. Preheat oven to 325 (if you have convection) or 375 for regular ovens. Cut strips of dough to line the edges of the rectangle. Using a pastry brush, put a little egg wash on the rectangle edges and line the strips of dough along keeping them even with the edge of the rectangle. I cut some circles out of my remaining dough and put one on each corner.

Bake in the oven for approx 20 minutes. You want the shell to be dry and tight to the touch. If you take it out of the oven and it begins to fall, put it back in for a bit longer.

Put case on a wire rack to cool.

In a small saucepan add about 1/4 to half of a cup of each type of berry. Add sugar and grand marnier (or liquor of your choice) and cook, mashing berries as they cook. I like the seeds and the mess so I leave them, some would strain but I think that is defeating the whole messy berry thing. Cook until it bubbles and becomes a bit syrupy.

When everything is cool, spread pastry cream in the case. Now, this is where I could have been a bit fancier, but I just wasn't thinking. I laid the berries out in perfect little rows and then smeared, drizzled the berry jam on top. I *should* have spread the berry jam on the pastry cream and then made pretty berry patterns. Ah well. All tastes the same going in.

Chill and serve.

Comments

[Sallie]

Oh this recipe! ~yum-yum~ Just what I needed. Now I am coping and pasting sticking it on my fridg to use later. Brillant Chief YOU are. Thanks for sharing. :-)

[Berry Joe]

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[Johnny Loewondo]

I would like to purchase puff pastry for Indonesia Country
Please assist, Thank You for your kindnesss
Best Regards,
Johnny Loewondo