Brown Butter Raspberry Tart

If you don't like rolling out a crust, this one's for you.  You just press it into the pan.                  

Crust:

·     7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted* (save light-colored pan to melt butter for filling)

·     1/3 cup sugar

·     1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

·     1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour

·     Pinch of salt

Filling:

·     1/2 cup sugar

·     2 large eggs

·     Pinch of salt

·     1/4 cup all purpose flour

·     1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·     1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter*

·      2 6-ounce containers fresh raspberries or 2 peaches, sliced

For crust:

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Using rubber spatula or fork, mix melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl. Add flour and salt and stir until incorporated. Transfer dough to 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Using fingertips, press dough evenly on bottom and up about 3/4" the sides of pan.

Bake crust until golden, about 15-18 minutes (crust may puff slightly while baking). Transfer crust to rack and cool in pan. Maintain oven temperature.

For filling:

Whisk sugar, eggs, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add flour and vanilla; whisk until smooth. Cook butter in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until deep nutty brown (do not burn), stirring often, about 6 minutes. Immediately pour browned butter into glass measuring cup (to keep from burning). Gradually whisk browned butter into sugar-egg mixture; whisk until well blended.

Arrange raspberries/peaches into bottom of cooled crust. Carefully pour browned butter mixture evenly over berries. Place tart on rimmed baking sheet. Bake tart until filling is puffed and golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Cool tart completely in pan on rack. 

Remove tart pan sides. Place tart on platter. Cut into wedges and serve.

DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead.  Cover and store at room temperature, but it might get soggy overnight. 

*Test-kitchen tip:  When browning butter, use a saucepan with a light-colored bottom so that you can gauge the color of the butter.

Berry Pie

One of the food blogs I follow is Feast for the Eyes. She recently posted a recipe for a berry pie.  It has probably been over 20 years since I have made a pie crust from scratch.  Marie Callenders' frozen crusts have been used a lot.

But I decided to try this crust and it came out pretty well,

although I would like to have rolled it thinner, but I didn't have the patience.  It was still a very tasty crust, and the pie was delicious!  I used a combination of blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, and frozen olallieberries*.

          For the crust:

     12 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter

     ⅓ cup very cold Crisco

     3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon sugar

6-8 tablespoons ice water (about 1/2 cup)

           For the berries:

8 cups of fresh or frozen berries

1 cup sugar (less, if the berries aren't tart

5 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 pinch kosher salt

pats of butter under the crust

OPTIONAL

1 egg and splash water (for egg wash)

For the pie crust:

Dice the butter and Crisco. Return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture.  Make your ice water now, too.

Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl. (Or use these directions to make your pie crust.**  )

Add the butter and shortening.  Cut in with a pastry cutter until the butter and Crisco are the size of small peas.

Pour the ice water in, starting with the smaller amount, until the dough begins to form a ball.

Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball.  Divide into two parts and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle.

Fold the dough in half, place in a 10-inch pie plate, and unfold to fit the pan.  Place back in refrigerator.  Roll out the top crust.  Wrap back in plastic and return to refrigerator until needed.  

(I've found the crust to be very thick because it uses 1/2 C more flour than most for a 2-crust pie.  I tried rolling it thinner, and it wasn't as good.)

For the berry filling:

Pick any stems and debris from the fresh berries.  Rinse and drain.

Combine cornstarch with the sugar and whisk to combine.

Add the sugar to the berries and allow to sit for a few minutes.

Taste to check for tartness.

Once you have the bottom layer of the pie crust in the pie plate, poke the bottom with a fork a few times.

Add the berries.

If desired, you can add a few pats of butter.

Cover with the top pie crust.

Cut slits for steam to escape.

Crimp to seal both pie crusts.

Whisk egg and water and brush the egg wash over the pie crust, before baking, if desired. This gives a nice golden color to the pie. If you have coarse sugar, it’s a nice tough to sprinkle some on top, if desired.

On a baking sheet, place the pie into a 375F oven and bake for about 50 minutes, or until golden.

Allow to cool for at least 4 hours before serving for the juices to set.

* Olallieberry: a blackish berry that is a hybrid of a loganberry and youngberry, resembles an elongated blackberry,

**King Arthur Pie Crust