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.
I love berry tarts and this is no exception! Love how it’s so loaded with so much juicy tasty berries! I need a slice or three right now!
What a classic gorgeous tart this is. I have never heard of these berries and I don’t think I can find them. Can I try this one with any other berries. so delicious
Thanks Kushigalu, if you can’t get hold of elderberries, blueberries and blackcurrants make a good alternative.
What a lovely tart. We don’t have elderberries growing where I live in Italy but we do have blackberries. I’d love to try this recipe. I wonder if I can plant some elderberries. in the garden! I know they grow in other parts of the country! In the meantime, I guess I can make this with blackberries.
You could use Blackberries in the recipe, do let me know how you get on.
Now, this looks like the perfect weekend baking recipe for a relaxing and uplifting weekend at home! I love Elderberries but have a hard time finding them in the states. This tart looks refreshing and I’m saving for later so I can make this soon. Will blueberries be an okay substitute?
Blueberries would make a good substitute, hope my reply isn’t too late.
Elderberries really are magical ! What a great use for this gorgeous berry. THe tart turned out perfect and tasted so delish. Everyone loved it.
Thanks Julie, so pleased you enjoyed the tart as much as we do.
I’ll be making this tart as soon as I get a hold of some elderberries, it looks ah-mazing!
Wow a tart with elderberries! I am sharing this with my friends who grow them in the hopes they will make it and share with me!
I love elderberries and this elderberry tart was delicious and a huge hit with my family!
Thanks Emily, so pleased you and your family enjoyed my elderberry tart.
I can’t find elderberries fresh where I lived, so I substituted wild blueberries and it was a huge hit with my family.
What a good idea to use wild blueberries, so pleased the tart went down well with the family.
I love how you freshly and deliciously made this recipe, I would love to make this too and hope it will turn good as yours.