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 fantastic. I bet it tastes as good as it looks too! This post reminds me of my 4 yr old. I asked him today what he wanted from the grocery store he said elderberries. I’m like what! I never bought them before so his response was very surprising.
Another great elderberry resource. Thank you so much for sharing this great recipe. I can’t wait to harvest my own elderberries 😀
I have an elderberry bush in my yard, and I’ve been wondering what to make with them. This tart looks like just the ticket!
This is the first time I have seen elderberries. I had no idea they are that tiny!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen elderberries, but this pie looks delicious! I’m not very good at baking, so I really appreciate detailed recipes like this one!
I never thought of making a tart with elderberries. This one looks exquisite! 🙂
I love that you use a creme de cassis for the custard! What a genius idea and this tart looks simply divine! I couldn’t stop at just one pieces… minimum 3 please! Yum!
I had never heard of Elderberries until I read your post, I probably passed by a tree without noticing in the past.This Tart looks really delicious!
Your elderberry tart looks absolutely scrumptious! It really makes a beautiful presentation.
I have seen orange color berries but these look new to me, can’t recollect seeing them in supermarkets also. This tart looks delicious and so beautiful. I might have to try this with some other berries 🙂