Elderberry Tart with Cassis
Elderberry Tart makes the most of this delicious foraged fruit. Elderberries & a cassis flavoured custard fill this butter pastry shell – Yum!
There’s an abundance of elderberries out there ready to be picked and preserved, the beauty of elderberries is that you don’t need to live in the countryside, you’ll find them in parks, gardens and alongside footpaths in the city too.
Elderberries are best not eaten raw, they can give some people a bad tum but if you’ve ever eaten one straight from the bush you’ll know they are rather tart. Tasting a bit like a blackberry but more sour and they have a slightly earthy taste. See my Harvesting Elderberries post for more details on what to look for when picking and more recipes with elderberries to make the most of your foraged fruit.
Tart aux Myrtilles is the inspiration for my Elderberry Tart. I’ve used a rich butter pastry and used a small amount of custard flavoured with Creme de Cassis as a base for the elderberries for my version of this much loved tart. It truly is delicious, the elderberries adding just the right amount of tartness and fruitiness and if you’re like us you won’t be able to stop at just one slice. Serve cold ( if you can wait that long) with a dollop of creme fraiche or Homemade Clotted Cream.
If you like elderberries, why not try my Elderberry Jelly with Port? – this fruity seedless jam is delicious on toast or a scone and is equally good with cooked or cold meats as it pairs perfectly with beef, pork, lamb and poultry. Simply add the jelly to your gravy or jus as you would when using redcurrant jelly.
Elderberry Tart
Equipment
- 1 x 23 cm (9 inch) flan/tart tin
Ingredients
Pastry:
- 200 g plain flour
- A pinch of salt
- 100 g chilled butter, cut into small cubes 3½ oz
- 4 tablespoons icing sugar
- 1 egg yolk freeze the white for later
- Approximately 2 tablespoons water
Filling:
- 2 eggs
- 115 g caster sugar plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
- 175 ml double cream
- 50 g plain flour
- 2 tablespoons creme de cassis
- 500 g cleaned ripe elderberries with stalks removed 1 lb
Instructions
Make the pastry
- Sieve the flour and salt into the mixing bowl of the stand mixer. Add cubes of butter and mix on slow with a paddle attachment until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar and briefly mix.
- Briefly whisk egg yolk and water in a small bowl before adding to the pastry mix. Mix on slow until the pastry forms. This shouldn’t take long at all, less than a minute – you don’t want to overwork the pastry.
- Wrap the pastry in cling film and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes until firm but not hard.
- Grease 1 x 23 cm ( 9 inch ) loose bottomed flan tin.
- Roll out your pastry to about the thickness of a £1 coin ( ⅛ inch ) making sure the pastry circle is large enough for the diameter of your flan tin plus twice its depth.
- Carefully line your tin with your pastry before popping in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 200℃ / 180℃ Fan / 400℉ / Gas Mark 6.
Prepare the filling:
- Whisk together the eggs, sugar, cream, plain flour and creme de cassis until smooth.
- Place the elderberries in the pastry case and pour over the creamy filling.
- Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of caster sugar before placing in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes until baked.
Notes
Pin Elderberry Tart for later:
I’m linking my Elderberry Tart to a few food challenges this month:
- Credit Crunch Munch co hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle over at Utterly Scrummy, hosted this month by Michelle.
- Simple And In Season hosted by Katie over at Feeding Boys.
- Cook Once, Eat Twice over at Searching For Spice and hosted by Corina.
And linking to:
Fiesta Friday hosted this week by Antonia at Zoale and Sandhya at Indfused.
Wow this looks and sounds gorgeous!
Thanks Kat, the elderberries and cassis worked so well together. I’ve managed to freeze some berries so I can make another tart.
It looks amazing next season I will definitely be coming back to the kitchen shed to try out some of your elderberry flower/berry recipes for now I will pin.
Thanks for pinning Jacqui, look forward to hearing from you next season. x
This looks lovely. There are quite a few elderberries near me now so I must try this,
Thanks Alison, happy elderberry picking and do let me know how you get on x
Oh, it looks yummy. I like these purple elderberries. Can’t wait to make this tart for my kids 🙂
Thanks Chidinma, I hope you enjoy elderberry tart as much as we do here at the Kitchen Shed. I think the alcohol from the cassis will be cooked out but you may want to omit it for your children.
Love the idea of making a tart with Elderberries and this one looks gorgeous! So pretty! x
Thanks Midge, it’s the first time I’ve tried elderberries in a tart and we were really pleased with how tasty they were. x
Oh wow – this looks so good! And I LOVE the idea of adding cassis 🙂 Thanks for linking up to #CookBlogShare!! Eb x
Thanks Eb, I love adding a tipple to my desserts and cassis goes so well with the elderberries. Always a pleasure to link up with #CookBlogShare x
Ooh I absolutely love the sound of this Sarah…it really does look so inviting. As shocking as it may seem, I’ve never tried elderberries before (or at least I don’t believe I have), so I’m off to have a read about foraging for them in your other post now, but defo pinning this ready for when I can source some.
Angela x
Thanks Angela, it’s not shocking at all, I think most people forage for blackberries and aren’t too sure what to do with elderberries. Thanks for pinning and look forward to hearing how you get on x
Oh wow, roll on the next elderberry season! This looks amazing x #recipeoftheweek
Thanks Kirsty, the elderberries have all gone here now but you could always make the tart with blackberries x
I love elderberries they take me back to summer at my Nana’s house #cookblogshare
Thanks for stopping by Faye, I’m glad my post has brought back happy memories for you x