This recipe is everything you could ever want in a fresh blueberry tart. The tart includes a combination of jammy cooked blueberries and a layer of fresh blueberries on top, making blueberries the clear star of the show. The crust is delicate and stays nice and crisp throughout, imparting a subtle toasted almond flavor.
I have always been a blueberry lover and first came upon the concept of a double blueberry tart that uses cooked blueberries in the filling and fresh blueberries on top through Lori Longbothom’s Luscious Berry Desserts cookbook. Her blueberry tart recipe was always my go-to and I have since made some tweaks and adaptations to create my idea of a perfect blueberry tart.
Here’s the full breakdown.
The Crust: If you’re intimidated by making your own tart dough, this crust is for you! It comes together quickly in a food processor and is pressed into the pan so there’s no need to worry about rolling out a perfect slab of dough. For my addition, I used a trick I learned from Claire Saffitz’s cookbook, which is to toast your almond flour before adding it to the dough to improve the flavor. I also added a bit of almond extract to amp up the almond flavor.
The Filling: The filling for this recipe is incredibly simple and comes together very quickly. To brighten it up a little bit, I added the zest of a lemon and also for the first time tried incorporating a bit of ground coriander. Apparently, coriander seeds contain high levels of linalool, a flavor compound that we perceive as citrusy and floral. The linalool present in coriander is very similar to that produced in blueberries, so layering those flavors together can help amplify what we perceive as a classic blueberry flavor. You can’t taste the coriander in the filling but I did notice that the tart had a slightly more intense blueberry flavor than versions I made without the coriander.
The topping: I like to keep the topping simple by organizing blueberries in concentric circles around the top. You can leave the tart exactly like that and it will be excellent! If you’d like to add a little bit of extra shine for presentation, you can go ahead and glaze with apricot jam, as I did in the photos.
The Perfect Blueberry Tart
Course: Pies and tartsDifficulty: Baking session1
8-inch tart30
minutes55
minutesThis tart is bursting with intense blueberry flavor and comes together easily. The buttery toasted almond crust is the perfect backdrop and lemon zest and coriander are added to the filling for an extra pop.
Ingredients
- For the crust
1/4 cup (25g) almond flour
1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp (25g) granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, chilled
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp very cold water
- For the filling
2 Tbsp (25g) granulated sugar
1.5 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground coriander
zest of 1 lemon
4 cups of fresh blueberries (divided in half)
1/4 cup apricot jam (optional)
Instructions
- Place the almond flour in a pan over medium low heat. Stir constantly until the almond flour is nicely golden (about the color of graham cracker crumbs) and fragrant, about 3-5 minutes. Be sure to keep a close eye, since the flour will go from unchanged to golden quite quickly. Immediately remove from the pan and place in a dish on the counter or in the fridge to cool back down to room temperature (it’s fine if it gets colder than that).
- Place the toasted almond flour, all-purpose flour and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to mix. Then add a stick of butter, cut into cubes and pulse until the butter pieces are no larger than the size of a pea.
- In a small bowl, mix together the egg yolk, almond extract, and ice water. Pour into the food processor and pulse until the dough starts to come together. If the dough seems too crumbly, add more water 1 tsp at a time until the dough comes together into a ball.
- Using floured hands, press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of an 8″ tart pan. If your kitchen is really hot and the dough is becoming super sticky, you can pause mid-way refrigerate it while you make the filling and then finish pressing it into the pan. Do your best to make it relatively even but it will look somewhat rough which is completely fine. You can use the palm of your floured hand to help even out the base a little bit and just be sure to press the dough all the way up the sides.
- Preheat the oven to 425F.
- Make the filling by mixing the flour, sugar, coriander, and lemon zest in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Add in two cups of washed blueberries and coat in the mixture. Pour the mixture into the unbaked tart crust, spooning any remaining flour mixture on top of the berries.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 425F and then lower the temperature to 350F and bake for an additional 35-40 minutes. Around the half-way mark (15-20 minutes in after you’ve lowered the temperature), give the berries a stir, making sure to flip over any berries that have spots of flour still showing.
- Remove from the oven when the crust is golden brown and the berries seem jammy. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then press the remaining fresh blueberries into the jammy mixture, organized in concentric circles on the top.
- If you’d like to add a glaze, place the apricot jam in a dish and microwave for about 10 seconds. Place through a strainer. Dip a pastry brush into the strained jam and brush across the top of the tart until all of the blueberries are lightly covered.
- Let the tart cool to room temperature and serve. The tart is delicious on its own and doesn’t need any accompaniment but you’re welcome to add ice cream or whipped cream if you’d like.
Notes
- If you don’t have almond flour, you can add 25g of toasted almonds to the food processor with the flour and sugar and pulse until the almonds are finely ground.
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