Monday Moods: Three Berry Tart Recipe.

Hello! 

How is this Monday treating you? 

Let's start this week with some delicious shall we? 

At some point in March, I had the pleasure of tasting blackberries and raspberries for first time ever. I loved them. Pricey (here in India) but so amazing. My sister, bought these for me as I was recovering from a bad bout of food poisoning. These helped. They cheered me up and healed my sick heart. 

A had a couple of these and was struck by a bolt of genius...why not bake a pie? 

This was right around Pi Day and Instagram and Tumblr were full of delicious Pie pictures and recipes. So why not bake one of my own? 

God! Don't you just love being spontaneous and doing something out of the box? 

I loving baking. But I mostly stick to cakes, cupcakes, muffins, puddings and the like. I have baked a few pies in my time but every single one of them had someone else make the dough/ pie crust. I am not, NOT a good dough kneader (is that a word?) and I get very nervous with dough and the pressure of getting it right. 

But maybe it was the luscious berries- oh I also had a box of delicious Mahabaleshwar strawberries on hand-or maybe it was my ill-health, I suddenly had the manic confidence to attempt a pie crust all on my own. 

I looked up a few recipes and even a few YouTube videos and got started! 

Okay, so here is what you need:

For the berry filling:

1-2 cups (or more if you like) of berries of your choice. I used strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. 

2-3 tablespoons (more if your berries are tart) of sugar 

1 tablespoon of cornflour (to prevent the mixture from being too liquid-y)

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (optional) 

For the tart/crumble topping: 

1 3/4th cup flour

2/3 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/2 cup melted butter 

A pinch of salt 

1/2 cup ground almonds (optional)

1. Wash and dry your berries and set them aside

2. Now, prepare the tart/crumble topping by first mixing all the dry ingredients and then whisking in the melted butter.

3. Knead the dough (it is okay if it is slightly coarse and not totally smooth like chappati dough) and cover it with a cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour- depending on how patient you are :) 

 

4. Chop the berries up, put them in a mixing bowl, add the sugar, cornflour and lemon zest till it is well combined. 

5. Assemble your tart- pour the berry mixture into a baking dish. 

6. Roll out the dough and place it over the berry mixture in strips or even as one full sheet (you will need to make a few cuts to let the steam escape if you put the dough over the berries as a full sheet). 

7. Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Bake the tart for 45-55 minutes- basically till the berry mixture is bubbling and the top is golden brown. 

Serve with strawberry or vanilla ice cream or even without! 

Enjoy! 

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes.