Blueberry Vanilla Tart

 A shortcrust pastry, with a creamy vanilla pastry cream and a jammy blueberry compote

Sometimes I find fruity tarts hard to concoct, I can never truly visualise how I want the layers and what they should be made of. Should it be mousse, should it have chocolate, should it be baked? a lot of questions. So this tart was quite the gamble really and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I usually find that any dessert with blueberries has lemon in it, but this time I wanted the lemon to be featured subtly so I've only put it in the pastry. The middle layer is a creamy vanilla pastry cream's I didn't;t want anything too runny to ooze when you cut into it and pastry cream is the right viscosity. Then on top I've opted for a a blueberry compote and fresh blueberries. I love this consistency, it's not too sweet but not sharp at all and I find this dessert has been so refreshing for a hot summers day. I hope you enjoy making this tart, blueberries are in their prime right now so the perfect excuse to make them the hero in a sweet treat! This recipe is a little extra work but it will be worth it. 

If you love blueberries and tarts....

Check out my other recipes for more inspiration!

• Vegan Blueberry Crumb Cake
• Rhubarb and Custard Tart
• Strawberry Tart

Recipe

Prep: 4 hours

Cook: 40

Serve: 8-10

Notes:

• Try not to overwork the pastry when bringing it together otherwise the gluten will become too tough and will result in a harder pastry. 
• When adding the butter to the cream it might split, but the best thing to do is to let it cool in the fridge. This can take a couple of hours but then you can whisk it back together till smooth. 
• Some whipped cream could also make a nice additional topping along with the blueberries. 

Ingredients

Shortcrust 

• 125g butter, cold
• 220g plain flour
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2-3 tbsp ice cold water

Pastry Cream

• 100g sugar
• 4 large egg yolks (roughly 80g) 
• 60g butter, room temp,
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 30g cornflour
• 240ml whole milk
• 240ml double cream
• pinch of salt

Blueberry compote

• 200g frozen blueberries
• 60ml water
• 15g cornflour
• 50g sugar
• pinch of salt
• Fresh blueberries

Method

1. Grease and lightly flour a 9-inch tart tin and set aside.
2. Make the pastry base first. In a large bowl add the butter, lemon zest, salt and flour. Use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour until it resembles a bread crumb consistency. Then add the water 1 tbsp at a time. Mix together until a firm dough is formed. 
3. Flatten out into a disc shape on to clingfilm then wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
4. Remove the chilled pastry from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature for 10 minutes so it is not too hard when you try to roll it out otherwise it will crack.
5. Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the pastry to about 3mm thick into a rough circle - bigger than the tart tin.
6. Roll the pastry up with your rolling pin so that you can easily transfer it over the tart tin to drape over. 
7. Use your fingers to push the pastry down into the sides of the tin for a sharp edge. Use a sharp knife to trim the excess from around the top of the tart. If you have any spots of the base that look thinner you can use the excess pastry to press into it to make the base thicker. 
8. Place the tart base back into the fridge for at least an hour.
9. Preheat the oven to 180℃. Once the pastry is chilled, use a fork to prick the base all over.
10. Line the base with greaseproof paper on the bottom and the sides and use baking beans or dried rice to sit on top of the paper - this is blind baking.
11. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the paper and baking beans and bake for another 5 minutes.
12. Leave the tart base to cool.
13. Meanwhile make the pastry cream filling. 
14. In a medium bowl combine egg yolks, sugar, salt, vanilla, and cornstarch. Whisk until light and foamy.
15. In a large saucepan add the milk and cream and a pinch of sugar. Heat until simmering then pour a little of the cream into the egg/sugar mixture to temper the eggs stirring together.
16. Pour this back into the saucepan with the remaining cream and place back on the heat.
17. Heat the mixture whilst whisking continuously as the cream thickens. Make sure it doesn't catch the bottom of the saucepan as you'll have burnt bits in the pastry cream. 
18. Keep cooking until you can't see anymore steam and the pastry cream comes away from the bottom really easily. It should be quite thick and have a slight wobble to it. 
19. Take off the heat and stir in the butter till combined. 
20. Spoon into a bowl (preferably metal) and cover with clingfilm making sure it touches the pastry cream - this prevents a skin forming. Leave to cool completely. 
21. See note section if the butter is splitting. 
22. Make the blueberry compote. 
23. In a saucepan add the frozen blueberries, sugar, salt, and half the water. Cook on a medium-low heat until all the sugar has dissolved.
24. Add the cornstarch to the remaining water and stir well. Add the cornstarch mixture to the saucepan and continue to cook until the blueberry mixture becomes thick and glossy, about another 5 minutes.
25. Keep stirring so it doesn't burn at the bottom.
26. When glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon it's ready. Remove from heat and cool completely until ready to use it.
27. Assemble the tart. When the pastry cream is cool it needs to be reconditioned by whisking it quite vigorously till smooth.
28. Spoon the pastry cream onto the pastry base and spread out evenly.
29. Then spoon the blueberry compote on top being careful not to agitate the pastry cream too much, you don't want the two layers to mix. 
30. Decorate with the fresh blueberries then place in the fridge for two hours to set completely.
31. Once set, slice and serve. 
32. This tart is best stored in the fridge up to 3 days. Enjoy!

Christina

xx