Summer Berry-Peach Tart

 

More fun with blackberries!

For the GNO brunch last weekend I promised to bring a fruit salad so went to the Farmer's Market that morning to gather some seasonal ingredients.  Made a mixture of blackberries, blueberries, peaches, fresh chopped mint and honey.  It came together really nicely, so nicely that I thought "you know, this would make a great pie filling too."  But instead of a pie, I decided to do a tart, with some finely chopped pecans (to give it a little crunch) and cinnamon crust...mmm mmm mmm!  Experimental cooking can be so much fun (especially when it turns out the way you crossed your fingers for).

Summer Berry-Peach Tart

crust
1-1/4 cup flour
3-4 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 tbsp. cold butter, cubed
1-1/2 to 2 tbsp. water
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
sugar to sprinkle

filling
1-1/2 cups whole blackberries
3/4 cup blueberries
1 medium peach, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp. fresh mint, finely chopped
1-1/2 tsp. honey
1 tsp. sugar
1/8 cup pecans, finely chopped

Mix together flour and cinnamon.  Add in pieces of butter and incorporate using a pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.  You can use your fingers, but I find the heat from my hands will start to melt the butter and make it less malleable.  Yes, I have hot hands in the kitchen.

 

Starting with 1 tbsp. of water (and adding more as needed in 1/2 tbsp. measurements), bring mixture together until it forms a soft dough ball. Will take some kneading so be patient.

Wrap the dough in plastic or wax paper and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

In the meantime mix together the fruit, mint, honey and sugar.  Set aside.

When the dough is ready, roll out and transfer to a lightly greased tart or springform pan.  If you use a springform pan make sure to press it up along the edges to form a short ridge to hold the filling.

Sprinkle the chopped pecans along the bottom and press into the dough.

Pour the fruit mixture into the tart pan and spread out evenly.  Fruit filling will be higher than the sides of tart pan when you pour it in, but not to worry, it will cook down.

Place the tart pan on a cookies sheet.  As an easy-to-clean-after precaution, I had put a sheet of foil down in case of fruit juice spillage.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove tart from oven and brush edges with egg yolk.  Sprinkle with sugar and bake another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool tart pan on a rack.

Once pan is cooled, remove tart and place on a serving dish.  Or cutting board if you're going to jump right in on that.

Serve with your favorite ice cream or a decorative dollop of whipped cream.

NOTES

I forgot to put my cinnamon in the flour to start with, but you can fold it into the dough after it's mixed, will just give it that marbled effect.

To get my pecans finely chopped, I just threw them in a food processor for about a minute.

For the mint, rinse and dry the leaves.  Then the easiest way to chop them is to chiffonade them -- roll them together into a long "tube" shape and then cut along the short end.  Will give you small "ribbons" of mint.

You could substitute other fresh berries in this dish, I just chose blackberries because I adore them and because all my fruits are currently in season.

Whatever fruit combo you use, you want to make sure they all have the same cooking time (for example, apples take longer to cook than berries so would not work with this unless partially cooked to begin with).

I served my torte with caramel honey frozen Greek yogurt.