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!
6 replies on “Berry Delicious!”
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?