Sour Cherry & Saskatoon Berry Tart

Summer fruits are here and I love it!  At the farmers market the other day I saw two things I can't find too often around here: Saskatoon berries and sour cherries.

Saskatoon berries look a lot like blueberries, but they taste completely different. When they're raw they are a little bitter, but baked in this tart they taste nutty and delicious, and go great with the sour cherries.  They also keep their shape really well when cooked.

Sour cherries are amazing. I love sweet cherries but I've never used sour cherries before.  They are bright red on the outside but their juice is clear, not dark like sweet cherries.  They need to be sweetened but they have such a great cherry flavour.  I can't wait to bake more with them!

This is a super easy puff-pastry galette, but you can use the filling for a regular pie if you prefer.

I have a cherry pitter to pit the cherries, but you can use a knife if you don't have a pitter, and it's a lot less messy with sour cherries than sweet. 

Ingredients:
1.5 cups Saskatoon berries
1.5 cups sour cherries, pitted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 sheet frozen all-butter puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (raw sugar) or granulated sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix the berries, cherries, sugars, lemon juice and corn starch in a large bowl until well combined. 

Roll out the puff pastry on a sheet of parchment on a baking tray and poke it with a fork all over.

Mound the berry mixture in the middle of the pastry and fold the edges roughly up over the filling.

Brush the outside of the pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown and crisp.  If juices leak from the tart, that's ok! 

Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. 

Strawberry & Brie Puff Pastry Tart

Here's another Tart of the Month! 

I've been slacking on my tart prep in 2016. Things have been hectic and I've had very little time for baking, but this tart is so quick and easy, it barely counts as baking at all!

I had leftover cheese and fruit from a dinner party we had, so I decided to put it all together in some puff pastry for a tasty snack.  

You can use virtually any combination of cheese and fruit - blueberries and cream cheese, peaches and goat's cheese, apples and cheddar, pears and blue cheese... the possibilities are endless. 

Simply slice up the fruit and place it on a sheet of thawed puff pastry.

Then top with the cheese of your choice either sliced, spread, or crumbled over the fruit

I attempted to get fancy and create a braid pattern by slicing the puff pastry in diagonal strips on either side of the filling.  I should have started braiding at the bottom though.

My braid pattern didn't turn out as nicely as I'd hoped, but it's still kind of neat!

Mix an egg with a little water and brush over the pastry and sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until browned and crisp.  The cheese will melt out the sides a bit but that's ok!

Slice and serve warm or at room temperature. This makes a great snack or appetizer for a party.  Or even a not-too-sweet dessert, perhaps with a little whipped cream or ice cream. 

Enjoy this easy tart with all the fruits coming into season soon!  

Tart of the Month - Apple and Caramelized Onion

If I've learned one thing from my Tart of the Month series, it's  this: Keep frozen puff pastry on hand and you can whip up a tart for dinner, breakfast or appetizers any time. 

We are moving to a new house at the end of the month so we have been very busy for a while now. So this tart is extremely easy and uses ingredients we always have on hand.  It's just apples, onions, sour cream and puff pastry. 

Here's what you need for these easy, tasty tarts:

Tart of the Month - Apple Pie

For Thanksgiving this year I was in charge of making apple pie. I know this is not technically a tart, but I prefer apple pie with crumble topping, rather than a double-crust pie, so it's very close to a tart.

I used The Food Lab's easy pie dough recipe to make the dough ahead of time and kept it in the fridge for a few days, then assembled and baked the pies the day of our dinner.

The dough is very easy to make in the food processor. I've been afraid to attempt pie crust in the past but I'm finding it pretty simple these days.  As long as you keep things very cold it isn't scary at all!

Here's what you need for two apple pies with crumble topping:

Tart of the Month Autumn Round Up

It's been a very busy month around here, so I didn't have time to make a new tart in September.  Instead, I thought I'd browse the archives for seasonal Autumn tarts I've made in the past.

There are some real winners here!

This Butternut Squash Tart with Sage, Honey & Chilis is really easy and makes a tasty, fancy appetizer or light lunch.

Stone fruits are still in season here in Ontario, and these Plum Tarts with Honey and Black Pepper are a sweet and sour treat.

This Roasted Vegetable Tarte Tatin takes a little more effort, but it is so beautiful and delicious, it's well worth it. 

I can't get enough butternut squash at this time of year, so here's another Butternut Squash Tart, this time with mushrooms and Gruyere.

Little Beet, Cheddar & Apple Tarts on puff pastry are a simple treat for a savoury dessert or snack.

Tarte flambée, or Flammekueche is similar to pizza and makes a wonderful dinner when nights get cooler.  

Carrots are in season and I love the way this Carrot and Herb Tart uses a variety of coloured carrots with the green of fresh herbs. 

And, finally, it isn't really fall without some pumpkin spice. These Pumpkin Spice Tarts have a gingersnap crust I love. 

Get outside and enjoy the season!  

Tart of the Month - Bourbon Peach Icebox Cake

This is only very tangentially a tart.  Icebox cake has a "crust" in the form of cookies and a "filling" in the form of whipped cream and fruit, so I'm calling it my tart of the month so I don't have to turn on the oven!

Icebox cake is actually really easy to make.  A magic process takes place when you layer cookies with whipped cream. They take on a cake-like consistency as they moisten and become almost like solid cake when sliced. 

Tart of the Month - Mini Bumbleberry Tarts

Bumbleberry isn't a real berry. I thought everyone knew that but when I was searching for bumbleberry tart recipes, one of the search autofill results was "bumbleberry tree". So I guess some people think it's a magical berry!

Bumbleberry is a mix of several different berries, and it makes a wonderful combination in pie, tarts and other desserts.  

For these tarts, I used raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries. 

Here's what you need for these tasty tarts:

Tart of the Month - Strawberry Rhubarb Galettes

I think I finally discovered the key to loving rhubarb. It seems so obvious, but mixing it with strawberries makes all the difference! Strawberry and rhubarb go so wonderfully together. The tartness of the rhubarb is a great compliment to the sweet berries. 

These galettes are very easy. A galette is a free-form tart, and making these with frozen puff pastry mean you can whip them up in minutes.

Here's what you need for these yummy spring treats:

Tart of the Month - Quick Dessert Tarts

I was away this weekend four our third annual cousins retreat where my sister-in-law and three lady cousins and I enjoy a weekend in Blue Mountain, Ontario.  

We enjoy great food and drinks.

Tart of the Month - Carrot and Herb Tart

April's tart of the month is not exactly seasonal. Carrots are available year round but at their peak in late summer and fall. But the fresh herbs and ricotta make this tart light and spring-like, and the beautiful, multi-coloured carrots are striking. 

This is one of those incredibly easy puff pastry tarts that can be whipped up in 30 minutes or so. 

This beautiful tart comes from Bon Appetit magazine. Here's what you need:

Tart of the Month - Flammekueche (Tarte Flambée)

This month's tart is something I've enjoyed several times in pubs and beer bars. Tarte flambée is from Alsace, a region of France bordering Germany and Switzerland. The Alsatian name for it is flammekueche and it's very much like a pizza.  It's quite simple but requires a very hot oven and some special ingredients. 

Here's what you need for this tasty snack or meal.

Tart of the Month: Chocolate Tart

Perfect for February when you need a chocolate pick-me-up. This tart is very rich with a buttery crust and caramel-chocolate filling. 

This recipe comes from David Lebovitz, an awesome American pastry chef living in Paris. 

I've learned so much from my tarts of the month. I used to be afraid of making pie crust, but I learned last month how easy it can be. This is a whole new way to make crust that reminded me of the pâte à choux I used to make gougères, except with no eggs.

Here's what you need for this chocolate tart:

Tart of the Month - Roasted Vegetable Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin is usually dessert.  Fruit, usually apples, is cooked in caramel and baked with pastry on top, then flipped over to serve, with the browned fruit dripping in caramel on top.  This recipe uses root vegetables and savory herbs instead of fruit.  It comes from Bon Appetit magazine and it tastes amazing!  

I even made the pastry from scratch!  And it wasn't hard at all.  I used the food processor and it was a breeze.

This tart is amazing warm from the oven, but it's great at room temperature the next day too.  It would make a fantastic vegetarian main dish.  Here's what you need:

Tart of the Month * Lemon Bars

Wow, I've done almost a full year of Tarts of the Month!

February 2014 - Meyer Lemon Tart 

March 2014 - Butternut Squash, Mushroom & Gruyère Tart

April 2014 - Spring Asparagus & Goat's Cheese Tart

May 2014 - Asparagus & Gruyère Tart

June 2014 - Strawberry Tarts

July 2014 - Clafoutis

August 2014 - Plum Tart with Honey & Black Pepper

September 2014 - Beet, Cheddar & Apple Tart

October 2014 - Pumpkin Spice Tarts

November 2014 - Butternut Squash Tart with Sage, Honey & Chilis

So I figured I'd give myself a little Christmas gift and cheat a little with December's tart of the month.  These lemon bars aren't technically a tart, but they have a shortbread crust and a creamy filling and you could bake them in tart pans instead of a baking pan.

This recipe is adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  Here's what you need for these tasty lemon bars: