Sunday, April 09, 2006

Dreaming about the summer with the help of a blueberry tart

Blueberry tart / Mustikapirukas
New photo: June 2009

I know blueberries are not in season yet, at least not here in Scotland, but the sun was shining rather brightly the other day and I realised I was desperate for the summer to arrive already. This is a wee bit too optimistic, I guess, as even the spring hasn't reached its prime yet. However, in the hope that cooking something strongly summer-influenced might just tempt the summer to arrive earlier, I baked a blueberry tart. And yes, for a moment - eating a slice of this cake, basking in the sun shining into my room - summer did definitely feel more like an achievable reality as opposed to just a dream..

I hadn't tried this particular recipe before, but it had got a positive comment on my Estonian recipe site, plus it seemed easy to make. I was very pleased with the result - the crust was beautifully crumbly and coarse, the filling creamy and light, with intense blueberry flavour and colour. Not much sugar, and the porridge oats add some healthy fibres. I was expecting to have a layered tricolore cake - a golden brown base, blue layer of blueberries and white creamy topping. But no - as you can see from the picture, the blueberries have all burst into the cream during baking, beautifully colouring the whole tart intensely blue(berry).

I will definitely be making this one again.

An intensely blueberry coloured and flavoured blueberry tart
(Mõnus mustikapirukas)
Recipe from Valio
Serves 8-10




The crust:
100 g butter, softened
75 ml sugar
1 medium egg
200 ml plain flour
100 ml porridge rye flakes or four cereal flakes or oats*
1 tsp baking powder

Topping:
400-500 ml blueberries
(2 tsp potato or corn starch - if using frozen blueberries)
200 ml sour cream or cream fraiche
1 medium egg
75 ml sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream the butter with sugar, add the egg and the dry ingredients (mix the baking powder into the flour first). Bring the ingredients together and press into the base and sides of a buttered 25 cm loose-bottomed baking tin (this can be a bit messy, but persevere).
Spread the blueberries on top (less the few handfuls that go straight into your mouth:) If using frozen berries, mix them with some potato or cornflour first.
Whisk the sour cream with sugar, egg and vanilla and pour on top of the berries.
Bake at 200˚C for about 30 minutes, until the filling has set and the cake is slightly golden on top.
Let it cool a bit, then take out of the tin and cut into slices.

* I do NOT mean these sugar-coated cornflake type of things. I mean various flaked cereals that are used to make breakfast porridge in the Nordic countries. I used 4-cereal flakes (50% rye, 30% oats, 10% barley, 10% wheat).

17 comments:

Valentina said...

This recipe is lovely.I really like blueberries. I might use buttermilk instead of sour cream as I have none in the fridge. Fantastic recipe.I have prepared another blueberry recipe from Kitchen Space and will be doing yours in the middle of the week. ; o )

Alanna Kellogg said...

OH I so love this pie! It was featured in one of my first Kitchen Parade columns but I haven't made it in forever: SOON to change, thanks to this reminder!! BTW I use whole wheat for the second flour. And I wouldn't think buttermilk would be a satisfactory substitute without additional thickener.

Alanna Kellogg said...

PS I also have done raisin, dried apricot (soaked in liqueur for awhile to plump up) and raspberry versions - along with the traditional lingonberry / cloudberry.

Antti said...

Looks divine. My mom makes similar, but with quark as the topping for the berries.

Anonymous said...

What a great pic! I love all the blueberries sticking out of your tart! Looks absolutely delicious!

Paz

BETUL said...

Gorgeous colour...Hope it's warmed you.
Must be really cold there.It's snowing here.They say
it's coming from Scotland...

(Hi, Pille.This post was deleted accidentally by my son yesterday and I couldn't recover it at that moment.Thanks for the mail.Please do lurk in my blog and feel free
to leave comments.
all the best
Betul )

Anonymous said...

Hi Pille - I know what you mean by desperate for the summer to arrive... even though it's freezing cold here today! I can almost taste the intensity of the blueberries, lovely recipe indeed.

Anonymous said...

This looks amazing. Don't you find, though, that the blueberries here (in the UK, which at the moment means imported, I suppose) are much less blue than the ones in Finland or Estonia? They turn a nice purple shade when you cook them, but they're quite pale on the inside.

Also, where did you find the four-cereal flakes that you used instead of ruishiutaleita? I've not seen anything like it in the shops... Thanks for a great blog!

Nefritite said...

Hei Pille!

this recipe just screams of home, thank you for posting it :))
I think I have tried a similar blueberry pie recipe, but for some reason the topping has always ended up way too sweet. Your recipe seems good. I will definitely give it a go!

-Anita

Anonymous said...

I used june berries; it was delicious. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Nice colour and just looking at the pic, I know I would love this tart! Hope Spring will come soon for you!

Journal Actif said...

We can't wait for blueberry season! It's such an event here in Québec (they say the Saguenay region blueberries are the best in the world...)
This tart looks absolutely yummy!

Stephanie said...

Oohhh ... ahhhh .... gibberish ...

I can't even talk for all that drooling! That is just too phenomenal!

Thredahlia said...

Mustikatega on vist nii, kui ma nüüd õigesti mäletan (Eestis vähemasti), et metsas on mustikad ka seest "mustad" ja määrivad käsi, kultuurmustikas aga on suurem, natuke magedam, seest ei ole must ja käsi ei määri. Need olevat aretatud Põhja-Ameerika looduslikest liikidest.

Pille said...

Valentina - as Alanna mentioned, buttermilk wouldn't be a suitable replacement for sour cream, unless you use any thickeners as well. Creme fraiche would be good though. And I can see you like blueberries - two different cakes in one week already!

AK - couldn't find this in your Kitchen Parade columns - could you give me the URL please? All the versions you mention are lovely - I'd personally go for raspberry one probably.. It's also quite similar to the creamy rhubarb pie (http://nami-nami.blogspot.com/2005/06/creamy-rhubarb-pie.html) I made last summer.
But I'll stick with the porridge flakes - I really liked the extra crunch they gave to the pastry.

Antti - sounds like a cake that lends itself to endless variations.

Paz - thank you for your ever kind words!

Betul - the cake definitely cheered me up, but the weather is as chilli as ever:(

Keiko - I was actually very pleased with the intensity of those blueberries. Doesn't happen often with out-of-season berries..

Karin - I totally agree! I was very baffled in the beginning to find blueberries that weren't blue inside, but greyish-white at the most! This particular lot, however, was blue inside as well. Go figure..
The cereal flakes were "imported" from home - "Heleni neljaviljahelbed":)

Anita - the relatively small amount of sugar was what I liked about this recipe. However, it does require ripe and flavoursome fruit, as otherwise the tart can turn out rather bland..

Alexander - have never cooked with juneberries, I must admit. Aren't they rather tart? Glad you liked the cake though!

Bea - yep, the colour of this cake was _almost_ as appealing as the ones on your blog - I'm learning from the masters, you see:)

Zoubida - Saguenay blueberries? Are they small and dark blue and juicy inside? Mmm. I'm sure they're lovely, although nothing beats the ones I've gathered myself back home, obviously;)

Stephanie - I know, this is a very drool-worthy cake:)

Mia - welcome to my blog, and glad to hear that you use my Estonian site quite often. And thanks for the picture of your beautiful raspberry version!!

Thredahlia - just nii ongi. Kahjuks siin neid looduslikke mustikaid eriti ei liigu, saada on ainult neid kultuurmustikaid. Peab vist ikka kiiremas korras kodumaale naasma:)

shuna fish lydon said...

this looks too yummy for this time of night. can one have a virtual midnight snack?

I love the idea of adding a bit of pre-emptive thickener for the frozen berries-- brilliant!

Anonymous said...

My blueberry bushes are laden with fruit so tonight I made Pille's blueberry tart.
I used a few more berries than the recipe indicates, and yogurt instead of sour cream, since that's what I had, plus a drop of lemon in the topping. I can't imagine how it could have been any more delicious.