Our wild berry picking has started early this year. We were out foraging bilberries at the weekend. They love acid soil and are found on low-growing bushes in the surrounding area. The berries are small and picking them is quite time consuming – but, be patient, they’re well worth the effort!
We put some in the freezer for future jam making and used the rest of our crop to make this bilberry custard tart. Here’s the recipe:

Bilberry custard tart
Ingredients
For the shortcrust pastry
- 125 g/4oz plain flour
- pinch of salt
- 55 g/2oz butter cubed
- 30-45 ml/2-3 tbsp cold water
- (or you can buy a pack of ready-made in the chilled section of most supermarkets)
For the custard
- 4 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 475 ml/1pt milk
- 55 g/2oz caster sugar
Instructions
- You’ll need to collect about 225g/8oz bilberries. Remove stalks and stray leaves and rinse in a sieve.Dry carefully on some kitchen towel (Don’t use a tea towel unless you don’t mind it getting stained purple).
For the shortcrust pastry
- Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter
- Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining
- Using a knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together
- Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for 10-15 minutes before rolling out
- Flour the worktop and roll out the pastry to about 1/2cm thick and 25cm/10inches in diameter (or large enough to fit over the dish you’re using)
- Carefully lift the pastry and lay it over your dish, moulding it to the bottom & sides
- Cut off any excess bits using a sharp knife
- Pour in the washed & dried fresh bilberries
For the custard
- Heat the milk gently in a pan
- Whisk the eggs & egg yolks
- Slowly add the milk to the egg mixture whisking continuously (make sure the milk’s not too hot or the eggs will scramble!)
- Pour the mixture carefully through a sieve on to the bilberries in the dish
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Cook the flan for 45 minutes or until the top begins to brown nicely. When cool, sprinkle a tablespoon of caster sugar over the top
The tart looks fabulous with the deep purple juice seeping into the creamy custard…
…and it tasted great too!
The tart looks wonderful. It is good that you managed to gather enough to freeze some as well. Ray Mears website sells a special tool for gathering wild berries; a blueberry rake thing, like a dustpan with tines along the edge to comb through the bushes and scoop off the berries. Hope you enjoyed eating the tart.
I knew a tool existed – no idea what it looks like – I'll have to have a look on Ray's website!
Looks delicious! It's been years since we went bilberrying, I love gathering wild fruit. I made blackcurrant jam from our own fruit yesterday. My four year old was very impressed that it tasted 'fruity'
hiya
thx for the delicious recipe. I think i will try the tarte in the next days.
greets
Oooohhhh…love the new blog (loved the old one too!)…. and this pie looks amazing..thanks for the recipe and have a lovely, long summer.
Hi Cesca,
Thanks for the feedback. The blog migration's been on the cards for a while – I finally took the plunge! How's life with you over there in Berlin?