A Fresh Cream-Cheese Blueberry Tart
I said I'd be taking a holiday, but I just had to squeeze in this rediscovered family favourite before blueberry season fizzles out. Besides, I missed you.
All my life this glamorous, glossy tart was known as “Lettie’s Blueberry Pie,” a recipe procured decades ago from a friend from Virginia who summers up the river. I always preferred it over traditional, double-crusted, baked blueberry pie primarily because it’s less sweet, being made mostly with raw blueberries that are held together by just a veil of jammy cooked ones. There’s also a creamy layer underneath, which lends a nice tangy flavour to everything.
I hadn’t made any sort of tart in eons because of Peter’s gluten restrictions, but earlier this summer we learned that Bob’s 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Flour (and surely other brands, too) can be used with regular tart recipes no problem. Great news! So many beloved dishes can now return to my life, such as quiche for quick lunches as well as flat tarts to be cut into squares for aperitifs, and, of course, this beloved blueberry tart from my youth, without which it’s almost impossible to fathom August.
I found the recipe, safe and sound, at my parents’ house in “The Calder Cookbook,” something I created when I was a teenager and gave to my parents and brothers as Christmas presents. They all still have them and use them, filthy and tattered though they be (the books, that is). Behold my parents’ copy of the great tome:
Every household, in my opinion, needs its own, special, handmade cookbook full of signature recipes, but more on that another time, because I did say last week that I was going to take a holiday and now here I am breaking my own oath with this sneaked-in post. Argh! This one is for paid subscribers, but first a versatile tart shell recipe for everyone (including the gluten-phobes):
Pastry for Sweet and Savoury Tarts
This pastry is from French Taste: Elegant Everyday Eating. You can make a savoury version or sweet, depending on the filling you plan to put in it or on it. Made with Bob’s 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Flour, it tastes and feels like a regular crust.
Makes: 2 disks
2-1/4 cups/300 g flour or 1-to-1 gluten-free flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar (for sweet tart crusts only)
1 cup/225 g cold butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup/75 ml cold water
1 teaspoon vanilla (for sweet tart crusts only)
Put the flour, salt, and sugar (if using) into a large bowl. Add the butter pieces, and pinch to a fine crumbly texture with the fingers. Make a well in the centre, pour in the water and vanilla (if using), then quickly mix with the fingers, without overworking, to combine. Pour onto a clean surface and gather into a ball. Cut in half, press each half into a disk, wrap, and refrigerate for an hour. (If you’re using only one, you can freeze the other for future use.)
To blind bake, which you won’t always be doing, but will if you’re going to be making the blueberry tart that follows, remove the pastry from the fridge and let sit until soft enough to roll, about 15 minutes. Roll out, either on a lightly floured surface or between two pieces of plastic wrap. Line a tart shell with the pastry, then put the shell back in the fridge to firm, again about 15 minutes. Heat the oven to 375°F/190°C.
Remove the tart shell from the fridge, line it with parchment, then fill with dried beans right to the top. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and beans, saving the beans in a jar for future blind-baking, and return the tart shell to the oven to finish baking, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove from the oven, and set on a rack to cool before filling.
P.S. If you’re not a baker and are wondering what the parchment and dried beans are about, this is to hold up the sides of the tart shell until the baking sets them. Without this step, the sides of the pastry will sink down into the pan. Once set, however, you’re fine: remove the beans and parchment and keep on baking, which allows the pastry to finish, getting lightly golden and crisp. (Note that, if you’re using gluten-free flour, it won’t turn golden.)
And now, on to that blueberry cream cheese tart, a perfect dessert to follow your next lobster or corn boil. (Bonus: I’m giving a recipe for making your own cream cheese below, too.)
