Blueberry Sour Cream Tartlets with Orange Zest and Almonds

The alternative title for this post is “Tart crust gives me high blood pressure” (back story to follow).

What, I ask you, is the best way to spend a hot, mid-June night? If you answered, “In the same room as a 400°F oven for multiple hours,”  then we are kindred spirits! Last night I made blueberry sour cream tartlets, and by the end of the process I may have been suffering from mild heat stroke and/or borderline dehydration. But it was worth it.

Berry season is in full swing, and a good locavore would patronize the nearest farmer’s market to stock up on home-grown tart filling ingredients. Alas, this locavore is rather given to impulse baking decisions, so, since I didn’t make up my mind to bake with berries until early evening when the farmer’s market was already closed, the blueberries I used for this recipe actually came from a supermarket. Please don’t judge me.

Locally-sourced or not, these desserts were easy to prepare (finicky tart crust notwithstanding), and they’re not aggressively sweet, so they’re perfect for breakfast as a companion to iced coffee or as an after-dinner treat. I took my recipe from this delightful website that apparently specializes in Texas cooking.  I did tweak the instructions a bit, adding a couple of other flavor components I’d seen included in other blueberry tart recipes – namely, I added some nutmeg into the crust along with the almond extract already called for in the recipe, and about a teaspoon of fresh orange zest went into the filling to punch up the lemon juice and provide some brightness to balance out the sweetness of the berries.

Speaking of Texas, this week’s post is dedicated to one of my colleagues in the English department who retired this year. She and her husband are moving to Austin, TX as I type this. She was an asset to our department in innumerable ways, and the rest of us are positive that replacing her in any equitable capacity will be nearly impossible. But we’re excited for her to start a new adventure. Texas is lucky to be adding such a singularly bright, genuinely kind, and unfailingly good person to their population.

Anyway, sentimentality aside, let’s get on with the baking --

First and foremost, as usual, the ingredients for crust and filling. Nothing too fancy going on today, just fresh fruit and strong flavors to complement it. Also, I got to haul out the ol’ food processor yesterday night to make the dough, which is always fun.

Here the dough post-processor. Every time I make tarts, I forget that the dough is really the trickiest part. Protip: “I’ll just eyeball it” is NOT an appropriate attitude with which to approach the addition of tiny, precise measurements of potent substances ( like 1/8 teaspoon of almond extract) to delicate mixtures (like tart crust dough). I learned this the hard way.  You see, the primary rule of tart crust is “Thou shalt not overwork thy dough,” which means the combining process needs to happen in the shortest, smoothest way possible. Of course, this pressure stresses me out, so I end up getting flustered when the butter pieces stick to the bottom of their container and, by the time I’m done dislodging the last of them and cramming them down the food processor chute, I realize with dismay that I’ve surpassed the 30-second window the recipe advises should be the maximum for blending this dough. And I still have to add the last, liquid ingredients to the mix! So, at this point I’m at Tension Defcon 5 and there’s no time for teaspoon measures, so “I’ll just eyeball it” happens…and THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how one ends up with 400% of the recommended amount of almond extract in their tart crust. Learn from my mistakes. Stay cool in the kitchen. And use your damn measuring spoons – always.

After the dough was done, both of us needed a good hour to chill before moving on to the next steps. (This may or may not also be the point during the baking process when a bottle of wine was opened…)

After the dough was chilled, I rolled it out between sheets of wax paper. Then, for the Crust-Cutting-And-Placing Process, I got to break out my new fillet spatula, which is very useful for handling delicate materials. I also re-purposed the fancy martini glasses I received as a gift a few years ago. Their rims were the perfect size to cut round dough pieces to fit my ramekins, and it was really nice to have a uniform measure rather than hand-piecing the crust into each dish separately. 

The original recipe makes a 9’’ tart, and I was able to get six mini-tarts from the same dough. Next time I might make a bit more dough, maybe 1.5X the recipe, so I don’t have to eke out that sixth crust. Also, there would have been enough filling for a seventh tart if I would have budgeted my portioning a bit better. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The crusts go into the oven by themselves for 15 minutes, then I take them out, fill them, and bake them for another hour or so. (Insert “half-baked” joke here. Har har.) During the first round of baking, I had them covered in foil and filled with pie weights, but that step leaves them looking rather un-dignified, so I spared the poor things the embarrassment of being photographed in such a state. Here they are post-foil, waiting to be filled.

Here is the sour cream base for the filling. Like I said earlier, I added a teaspoon of fresh orange zest to the sour cream mixture, and the tangy citrus flavor came through very well. In fact, in the future I might adjust the orange zest to just a quarter or half teaspoon so the milder flavor of the blueberries and almonds isn't overpowered. I like how sour cream tarts and cakes are more moist but much less cloying than other desserts. It’s nice to tap into lighter options like these when the weather gets warm. We’re still missing something, though, aren’t we?

Aha – berry nice! Once the blueberries are folded in, the crusts can be filled, and we’re almost done.

Got some interesting textures going on here. Looking at these, I remember hoping they'd come out tasting like summertime and not just feel like lumpy custard. In retrospect, I wish I'd topped these with some slivered almonds and perhaps sprinkled some coarse sugar on top. The almond flavor is so delicate that it's easily lost in the mix. (And speaking of unpleasant textures, I have pictures from a recipe I made over Memorial Weekend for S’more Pie that I may or may not publish here eventually – maybe in something akin to a blooper reel that I’ll put together after I’ve collected a nice variety of screw-ups. In the case of the s’more pie attempt, the graham cracker and chocolate components were on point; however, the marshmallow topping was a monumental debacle in the consistency department: think of the skin that forms on pudding…only half an inch thick).

After nearly an hour in the oven, blueberry sour cream tartlets are done and, though maybe not gorgeous, I think their misshapen asymmetry is endearing. Something store-bought would never look this funny, but it would also never taste this good.  And look at the inside, too. The fresh berries infuse the whole tart with  aromatic sweetness -- and that color! So many senses can engage with this dessert. Some of the recipes I previewed had the sour cream base prepared and baked separately and just dumped the berries on before serving, but I much prefer this berries-in-the-mix approach.  

Overall, I was pleased with the way this recipe turned out, and it could be varied easily to suit whatever fruits happened to look good at the farmer’s market (if, unlike me, you can plan that far ahead). The spices and accent flavors in the crust can also be modified to suit different fruits. I’ve never been a huge fan of almond extract (though I didn’t mind it here), and I’ll bet a cardamom-infused crust would taste great with a peach-filled tart, or a basil-infused crust with strawberry filling, or perhaps even rosemary crust with chocolate chunks  – the possibilities are delightfully endless.