Sugar High Friday #45 - Berries

and a first for me, food processor shortcrust pastry!

I've been thinking about Sugar High Friday all month and had decided to make a blackberry cake topped with meringue but at the last minute we went to the organic farmers market this morning and got organic gooseberries that were freshly picked and also some organic redcurrants too. So I changed my mind about what I was going to make and decided on a gooseberry tart.

In the vein of recent reminiscent posts on Helens blog I have been thinking about my grandparents a lot and particularly my maternal grandfather Michael, he was a tall and wonderful man from a small island off the southern coast of Ireland called Cape Clear (or Oileán Chléire in Irish), he became a teacher and moved to Co. Clare, where my heart lies and this is where he met my grandmother Bríd and they married, moved to Dublin and had 4 children; my mother, my aunt who is also my surrogate mother, my uncle who lives in Australia and my second uncle who lives in the south of Ireland and is a bear of a man vey like my grandfather in height and looks who I am extremely fond of.


My memories of my grandfather, who died when I was quite young, are still very strong, I remember the day he died and how hard it rained, I remember him handing us biscuits that christmas from an assorted tin of biscuits which were and still are very popular in Ireland at christmas time. My main memory though is gooseberries, jam and eating them off the bush in his garden, the sharp sweetness, the lovely crunch when you bit into one and the prickly skin. I don't think I've had gooseberries since I was a child so grandad, this tart reminds me of you and how much I wish you had seen me turn into the married woman that I am today. Crap, I am also premenstrual and crying at something I don't think I've ever cried about before, so apologies if I've gotten a little deep in this post and we haven't even gotten to the recipe yet!!!

Firstly, the food processor pastry which have never made before and am sure purists think is scandalous but seeing as I felt lazy it was easy and is flavoured with vanilla which will compliment the gooseberries perfectly.

From Donna Hay magazine issue 38

250g plain, all purpose flour
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
180g cold butter, chopped
80ml iced water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the flour, caster sugar and baking powder into a food processor and mix.
Add the butter and process until it resembles bread crumbs.
With the motor running, add the water and vanilla essence and process until it all comes together.
Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.



For the gooseberry tart, taken from Rachel's Favourite Food for Friends by Rachel Allen:

1lb of gooseberries, cleaned and de-stalked (is that a word??)
100g sugar
1 tbsp water

Put the gooseberries, sugar and water in a pot and heat for 4-5 mins until the gooseberries have softened. Turn off the heat and allow to cool in the syrup.

Blind bake your pastry at Gas 3/160 for 15 mins then egg wash and bake for another 15 mins, I used a 14x4 inch long rectangular tart tin. Drain the gooseberries from the syrup and place them in the bottom of the tart.


For the custard:

250ml cream
100g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs

Mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla together and then add the cream. Whisk until well mixed and pour over the gooseberries. Bake for 35-40 mins until the custard is set. Allow to cool and serve with whipped cream and a berry or 2 if you have some left.

This tart was gorgeous, light and custardy with a fantastic tartness from the gooseberries, the perfect combination of sweet and sour to my mind. A perfect summer tart I think, and the pastry was lovely despite it being not my usual method of making it. Special thanks to Susan from Food Blogga for hosting this month and also as usual to Jennifer of the Domestic Goddess for inventing this whole hoopla!

Mixed Berry Tarts

This recipe is from the Avoca Teatime book I bought last week and my friend Sinead's favourite Avoca dessert, it's light almondy sponge and and berries are a lovely summery combination and let's face it when it's raining and windy outside we need all the summer we can get.

So here's what you need:

1 quantity of shortcrust sweet pastry so you'll need to half the recipe unless you're freezing a tart case like me
75g butter
75g caster sugar
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
drop of almond essence
65g ground almonds
40g plain flour, sifted
900g mixed berries - I used blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries
Apricot jam to glaze if you want

So, heat the oven to 180/Gas mark 4.
Line a 23 cm tart tin with the pastry (I used 6 1ocm ones ).
Beat the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy
Beat in the egg, almond essence.
Fold in the ground almonds and flour and spread the mixture into the tart tin. Sprinkle with 75-100g of the berries.
Bake for 35 mins until light brown and firm to the touch.
Allow to cool. Melt some apricot jam and brush it over the top of the tart, cover with the remaining fruit, dust with icing sugar and serve.

I've had this in Avoca but mine was more almondy and I preferred it like this, I was probably a little heavy handed with the almond essence but I love it so a drop to me is like 1/4 tsp or more I'd say, use just a drop if you don't want a very almondy flavour.