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.
This looks fabulous. I don’t think I have seen fresh elderberries here. I will have to visit the farmer’s market and see if they have any. I love the taste of elderberries …. and would love to give this a try.
We never heard of Elderberries before, thanx so much for introducing them to us Sarah! What an interesting new ingredient. We’ll see if we can find it here in Greece. If not, we’ll go ahead and follow your recipe using blueberries instead;)
Wonderful tart, really. Sending you lots of greetings from Athens.
Mirella and Panos
Thanks Mirella and Panos for taking time to pop over, a big hello to you both. Sambucas Nigra is the latin name for Elder you may be more familiar with. I’ve just done a quick Google search and apparently the Italian for elderberries is ‘bacche di sambuco’, so I hope this helps, if not blueberries will be just as delicious. Do let me know how you get on 🙂
What an amazing tart! Shame I can’t seem to find elderberry near me.
Thanks Natalie, what a shame you don’t have elderberries nearby. You could always try making the tart with blueberries as an alternative.
What a beautiful tart!
I’ve never thought about foraging for elderberries. Now I totally will! Gorgeous tart!
Thanks Kitty, my dad used to take us foraging for elderberries and I’m so grateful he did. Hope you enjoy trying elderberries 🙂
What a delicious looking tart!!
Thanks Suchitra, it was a lovely surprise to see my elderberry tart featured at Fiesta Friday this week.
Your pie looks delicious!
Thanks Antonia 🙂
That’s an amazing tart….. beautiful! Bookmarked xx
Thanks Kate, that means a lot, I love your creations xx
Ooh, what an outstanding tart. Love it. I didn’t manage to get out to find elderberries in time this year. In fact I’ve been rubbish at foraging – most unlike me.
Thanks Choclette, it is unlike you to miss out on foraging this year but I’m sure you’ll remedy that next year!