Handmade Sour Cream Tartlets with Summer Berries

I love this time of year when all the summer fruits and berries start appearing at the market.

I have been ideating on a few personal projects, and have had to plan them around when certain berries would be in season. I had planned to drive an hour and a bit to a u-pick farm with berries, but to my delight I ended up spotting them at a local farmers market this week.

After shooting my next edition of my ‘Cake’ series, I put the left over berries to good use and into tartlets. I have been making this recipe for a few years now since coming across it in Cuisine Magazine. Easy to make, fool proof dough, where cracks and imperfections enhance its rustic nature, I have made it with all sorts of summer fruits in season. This edition was made with blackberries, raspberries and red currants.

This recipe appeared on my old @wordpress blog about 2 years ago, so I thought I would share a refresh with you all. I’ve already been asked to make it for our Christmas Day menu!

Handmade Sour Cream Tartlets with Summer Berries

Makes 4 tartlets

Ingredients

Sour Cream Dough*
250g (9 oz) plain flour
50g (2 oz) almond meal
150g (5 oz) unsalted butter, chopped
100ml (3.5 oz) sour cream

Filling
50g (2 oz) almond meal
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
1 cup blackberries
1 cup red currants
1 cup raspberries

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the flour, almond meal and butter with your hands until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add the sour cream and continue to combine until the sour cream is fully incorporated and the mixture beings to form a dough. Knead a few times and roll into a disk, cover with plastic wrap and allow to stand in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F). Combine the cornflour and brown sugar in a bowl and fully mixed. Toss the fruit into the flour-sugar mixture until fully coated. Set aside.

Cut the dough into 4 equal equal pieces and roll out each piece on baking paper into a thin circle of approx 20cm (7″). Sprinkle the almond meal evenly over each tartlet, and divide up the fruit between the tartlets and spoon into the middle of the dough. Roughly fold the edges of the pastry over to form an edge.

Bake on a tray lined with baking paper for 35-40 minutes, or until pastry is nicely browned and juices form a syrup. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

*LOVE NOTE: This pastry is totally fool proof and is designed to be rustic and crumbly. Don’t worry about rolling it out to the correct size, cracks and imperfections only add to its charm.

Adapted from a recipe by Cuisine Magazine.