Easy Berry Tart

I was invited to a dinner party with rather short notice, and asked to make dessert, which isn’t really my specialty. Luckily, I got this ginormous, very British cookbook “1000 Classic Recipes” for $2 at a book sale. Being British, probably half the recipes are for cakes, pies or tarts, and flipping through I found this recipe which was ludicrously easy and required very few ingredients. It’s low fat (for the gallbladderless among us), it could probably be made with gluten free flour, it takes maybe half an hour to make from start to finish, and it’s really tasty – a nice, light summer dessert. The one caveat is that it’s best to serve fairly soon after making, otherwise it gets a bit mushy from the berry juice. Also, it doesn’t make a huge amount – I’m not sure how amenable it would be to doubling, though it sufficed for six people for a light dessert. 

It’s best served with vanilla ice cream.

2 c. worth of berries (I used raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, but your berries may vary)

2 eggs
1/4 c. superfine sugar (you can just put granulated sugar into the food processor and blast it a few times)
1 Tbsp. flour
1/4 c. ground almonds
Parchment paper

Preheat oven to 375.

Grease the inside of a pie dish, and line it with parchment paper (which you may have to cut into a circle to fit into the pan easily). The grease mostly serves to hold the paper in place. Cut any berries that need cutting (e.g. strawberries) and place those and the other berries (blueberries or raspberries for example do not need to be cut up) into the bottom of the pan. If you think the berries will be too tart, toss a little sugar on them.

If you don’t have superfine sugar, since you’ll be using the food processor anyway for the almonds, you can just blast normal granulated sugar a few times and it’ll be fine for this recipe. Grind the almonds in the food processor once you’re done with the sugar.

Crack both eggs into a bowl, add the sugar. Here’s the only weird part – you’re trying to get as much air as possible into these eggs, but since the yolks are still included, it won’t make stiff peaks like it would with normal egg whites. Beat it until it is pretty stiff though, to the point where beaters make short-lived trails in the eggs.

Mix the flour and almonds, then fold them into the eggs. Try not to lose too much of the air during that process. Pour the batter over the berries. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the dough part is golden brown and cooked through.

Remove from oven, wait until it has cooled off a bit, then invert onto a serving plate and carefully remove parchment. Cut into slices and serve with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.