(Recipe can be found on the Food Network site here.)
Step by Step Instructions:
Start off making the pie crust for the Gooseberry-Blueberry Tartlettes. You can use your favorite pie crust recipe. Here’s what I needed: Sugar, Salt, Butter, and Flour.
I started off by cutting the 2 sticks of butter into small pieces…
…and put it in a bowl and freeze it until you’re ready to use it.
Once you are ready and butter is chilled, put 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar in the bowl of a food processor.
Then add in the cold butter.
Pulse the food processor until the butter is about pea-sized.
Get some ice water and slowly stream it into the food processor as you quickly pulse it. Just add enough that the dough starts to come together as you can see here.
Turn out the dough onto a sheet of waxed paper.
Split the dough in half.
Then wrap each half in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until you need it.
To caramelize the sugar, add 2 cups of sugar to a large pan. Turn the heat on low to medium low heat.
You can see her the sugar is starting to melt and brown here.
Here is the sugar once it fully caramelizes and is a medium brown color.
Pour the sugar onto a silicone mat (hello Silpat!) and let it cool and harden.
Once the sugar is cool break up the sugar. I found the easiest way was to use the end of a knife handle and lightly tap the sugar to break it up.
When you’re ready to make the tartlettes, put together the filling. Start off by preheating your oven to 375 degrees. The ingredients you’ll need for the filling are: a pint of Gooseberries, two pints of Blueberries, 1 egg (you’ll need the egg whites), 1 Lemon, some Butter, All-Purpose Flour, Sugar, Cornmeal, and Fresh Nutmeg.
To make the filling, grab a large bowl and place the cleaned blueberries (2 pints) and gooseberries (1 pint) in it.
Sprinkle the juice of one lemon over the berries but don’t stir them at any point.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar over the top of the berries. I repeat…do not stir.
Then sprinkle 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour over the berries.
Then grate some fresh nutmeg over the top. Don’t go too crazy with the nutmeg as it’s pretty potent.
Melt some butter and brush the butter in the mini pie tins. I had a pan that had space for 6 mini pies so that’s all I made.
Then sprinkle cornmeal inside each pie tin. This is all in an effort to make removing the baked tartlettes super easy.
Grab one ball of dough from the fridge and cut into 4 pieces. Keep 1 out, and refrigerate the others to keep them nice and cold until you need them.
Flour your work surface and roll out the dough ball. My pie pans were a little larger, so I needed a round that was about 5 inches in diameter so just be aware of needing more dough than your pan, so you have extra to overlap.
Carefully transfer the dough to the pan and if there are any tears just patch them.
Brush the egg whites over the dough once it’s in the pans.
Carefully spoon the filling into the tarts.
Then add a piece of sugar that you caramelized onto each tart in the center.
Then fold up the edges of the tart and keep the center open. Add a pad of butter to the center and then brush egg whites on the exposed dough. Bake for about 45 minutes.
Here are the tarts out of the oven. You can see how the dough is brown and the filling is all gorgeous and bubbly! When the tarts are cool, sprinkle powdered sugar over the top and serve it up! Your family and friends will really love you after this dessert! Happy tarting!
Ingredients
Tart dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
8 ounces (2 sticks) butter, very cold, cut in small pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup ice water, or as needed
2 cups sugar
Fruit filling:
1 pint gooseberries, stems picked off, washed and dried
2 pints blueberries, wash and dried
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup (1 stick) butter (1 tablespoon per tartlet), plus extra for brushing tin
1 large egg white, for egg wash
Finely ground cornmeal, for sprinkling on tin
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Preparation Instructions:
1. Start off with the dough. You can make your own recipe or use this tart recipe. In a food processor add the flour, butter, salt and sugar and pulse frequently until the butter is pea-sized. At this point, slowly stream in the ice water until the dough just starts to come together. Then pour the dough onto some waxed and separate it in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you need it. Be sure to handle the dough as little as possible.
2. To make the caramelized sugar, add the sugar to a heavy skillet. Cook over a low to medium-low heat. Watch as the sugar begins turning brown. Then you’ll pour the caramelized sugar onto a Silpat and let it cool and harden. Once it’s hard, you can break the sugar into pieces. I found the end of a knife handle worked really well to lightly tap on the sugar and have it break apart. Then set it aside until you’re ready for it.
3. Making the filling for the tartlettes is the next step. Grab a large bowl and place the blueberries and gooseberries in the bowl. Then juice a lemon and pour that over the top of the berries. Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the berries followed by the flour. Then grate some fresh nutmeg over the top of the flour. Be careful not to stir this all together. Leave it layered so that you’re not stirring the fruit more than you should.
4. Time to put together the tartlettes. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. You’ll need 8 small pie tins. (I had a mini pie tin container that only had 6 pie pans, so I just did 6.) Melt a tablespoon or two of butter and brush the melted butter over each pie tin and then sprinkle cornmeal over the butter. Grab 1 round of dough and cut it into 4 pieces. Keep 1 piece and refrigerate the others so that each piece is cold as you work with it. Flour your work space and roll it into a 4-inch circle. Now my tins were a bit larger, so I made mine about 5 to 6 inches in diameter. Place the rounds in each tin and repeat until all tins have been filled.
5. Break and egg and reserve the white. Whisk it a bit
and then brush it on the bottom of the dough shells before adding the filling. Then very gently spoon the berry-flour-sugar mixture into the shells. You’ll place a piece of the caramelized sugar onto the top of the filling. Then carefully fold the sides of the tart over but keep an open circle in the middle. Add a pad of butter (1 tablespoon or less is sufficient) to the top in the center of the filling. Then brush more egg white on the exposed dough and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. You can dust with powdered sugar when serving once the tartlettes are cool. And enjoy!!
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