tarts and pies

A few weeks ago I went on a pastry blitz making tart dough and sweet pastry dough, resulting in vegetable tarts and fruit galettes.

The vegetable tarts were inspired by lovely campari tomatoes at the fruit stand one night, so I bought a bunch. I came home and whipped up a double batch of tart dough resulting in one tomato tart and one zucchini tart so my husband and I could both have vegetable tart for dinner the following evening.

A couple of days later, I made a double batch of sweet pie dough and made one strawberry galette and one blueberry galette spurred on by this month’s market competition for best berry pie. The strawberry tart had too much liquid to submit (despite adding 2 tbsp tapioca starch), so I ended up submitting the blueberry tart and that came in third (behind 2 pies featuring strawberries!). But one vendor did say my pastry was the best, so I feel a bit better about coming in 3rd.  My husband loved the fact that the strawberry pie had been left behind as that meant pie for him.

All of these tarts and pies were to showcase the vegetable or fruit that was the main component and as such, they are all humble and lovely.

Blueberry Galette (this is the recipe I used to make the galette I made for the market competition)


Dough:
1/2 c + 2 tbsp unbleached flour
1/2 c baking flour from the Flour Peddler (locally milled flour)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c butter, diced
2-4 tbsp water

In the bowl of a food processor, mix the flours, salt, sugar together until blended. Add in the cold butter and process in pulses until the butter is incorporated into the flour but still remains in small chunks. Add the vanilla and 2 tbsp water and pulse. Add more water, by tablespoon until the dough just comes together. Pour the dough out onto plastic wrap. Wrap and chill for at least 15 minutes. Roll out into desired shape.

Blueberry filling:
1 lb organic blueberrys (I get mine from Forstbauer Farms)
1/4 c sugar
zest of one lemon, finely grated
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 tbsp tapioca starch

Mix the ingredients together and let stand for 10 minutes, adding more starch if there is too much liquid.

For the galette, roll out the dough into a circle about 12" across. Move to rest on parchment paper or a baking dish. Mound the blueberry filling in the middle of the dough, pushing it out to the edges, leaving 1-2" around the edges of pastry. Fold the pastry over the filling, pleating as required. Sprinkle the pastry with sanding sugar, if desired. Bake at 375 deg F for 30-45 minutes or until the pastry is browned and the filling is bubbly.