Blueberry and Almond Tartlets

Ever since I bought the book, Pies & Tarts by Martha Stewart, this tart was one of the first to be bookmarked. It has my favourite baking ingredients, almonds! And sounds even better with blueberries. According to the book, use wild blueberries if you can find them, otherwise, cultivated berries will do, the smaller, the better. I use my stack of frozen blueberries which I bought a couple of weeks ago instead.

Great for an afternoon tea-time snack.

1. The dough is mixed in the food processor, which takes only a couple of minutes. Refrigerate the dough for an hour, roll it out to about 1/8" thick, cut into rounds of about 4" and line the tartlet pans, (mine is 3" in diameter), with the cut-out dough, pressing gently all along the sides and trim off excess dough at the top. Prick the bottom of the dough all over with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375F.
2. Remove tray from refrigerator, line shells with parchment. Here I have used cupcake liners, easy, peasy, no need to cut your parchment papers to fit the tartlets, cupcake liners works perfectly. Fill with some dried beans and bake for about 20 to 22 minutes until light golden brown. Remove baking beans and transfer tartlet pans to wire rack to cool completely.
3. Cover the base of each tartlet with 1-1/2 teaspoons of blueberry jam, the recipe states that the amount of jam used is 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons, but I have used up about 1 cup of blueberry jam with about 1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons for each tartlet. Top with some frozen or fresh blueberries over the jam. Cover fruit in each tartlet with 2 tablespoons batter. 
4. Sprinkle the top with some sugar, here I have used organic demerara sugar, and some flaked almonds. Bake for about 18 minutes until tops rise and are golden brown. Transfer tartlets to a wire rack to cool completely.

Three different looks! Unintentional! Haha, why? here's why....

Tarts without the frozen blueberries.

This recipe yields 13 tartlets (supposed to be 12), simply because my tartlet pans are only 3" diameter. I filled 9 of the tartlets with the blueberry jam, the batter, the almonds, and as soon as I put that tray in my oven, it suddenly hit me that I have forgotten to add in the frozen blueberries!! How could I forget!!! Took the tray out immediately, and attempt to add in the frozen blueberries gently into the batter. I only did that for 6 tarts and left the other 3 as they are. So the one above has no blueberries fruits in them. 

The one with the blueberries, added in later, pressed gently into the batter, but still visible!

As it should be! The blueberries in the batter before baking.

There are 4 unfilled tartlet shells, as the first tray was full and I baked these later. And I did it right this time! I did not forget the blueberries!

Please do follow the recipe exactly, adding the blueberries, embedded in the batter, here's why. Look at the tart, one bite, and the soft blueberries squirts out it's juices!  Can you see the stripe of blueberry juice across the top of the tart? Well, one bite did that! This is one delicious Blueberry Almond Tartlet!  The pastry is so buttery and so good. Everything comes perfectly together! Yummy!

I'm linking this post to Cook Like A Star, where the featured chef for this month is Martha Stewart, an event organized by Zoe of Bake from Happy Kids and co-hosted together with Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out and Riceball from Riceball Eats.

I'm sharing this with :

Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Recipe Box hosted by Bizzy Bakes

Wild-Blueberry and Almond Tartlets
(adapted from "Pies&Tarts, by Martha Stewart)
For the crust :
1/3 cup blanched almonds (I use ground almonds)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 to 2 tablespoons ice water

For the filling :
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons blanched almonds, toasted and finely ground
1/4 cup sliced blanched almonds, for topping
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons blueberry jam (I use about 1 cup)
3 ounces (1/2 cup) fresh small blueberries, preferably wild

1. Make the crust : Pulse almonds in a food processor until finely ground. Add flour, sugar, and salt; pulse to combine. Add butter, pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add yolk and 1 tablespoon ice water; pulse until dough just comes together, adding up to 1 tablespoon more ice water, if needed.  Shape dough into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, 1 hour or up to 3 days. (Dough can be frozen up to 1 month, thaw in refrigerator before using).
2. Preheat oven to 375F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1/8 inch thick. Cut out twelve 4-1/2-inch rounds. Refroll scraps if necessary. Line twelve 3-or-3-1/4inch tartlet pans with dough, pressing into bottoms and up sides; trim excess dough flush with rims. Divide shells between 2 rimmed baking sheets. Pierce bottom of shells all over with a fork. Refrigerate or freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
3. Line shells with parchment. Add pie weights or dried beans. Bake until light golden brown, 20 to 22 minutes. Remove weights and parchment. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
4. Make the filling : With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat eggs and sugar until pale and thick, about 5 minutes. Using a flexible spatula, fold in flour, ground almonds and salt.
5. With an offset spatula, spread about 1-1/2 teaspoons jam into each shell. Top with blueberries, dividing evenly. Cover fruit in each tart shell with 2 tablespoons sugar. Sprinkle batter evenly with sugar and sliced almonds. Bake until tops rise and are golden, about 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Tartlets can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 1 day.

I would like to wish everyone 

"MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR"

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!