Imagine a tiny, little town in the middle of Illinois where the fourth of July is a really big deal and where on that day the park is filled with food stands and carnival rides and a dunk tank and the night-time fireworks show draws a crowd larger than the town’s population, and I grew up there. The fourth of July holiday was the highlight of the summer. Those food stands sold everything from fried fish sandwiches to pulled pork to soup, and pie was always served for dessert. All, or most, of the ladies in town baked pies for the various stands, and the proceeds benefitted local churches and charities. Not much has changed over the years about the celebration, but I don’t make the trip to attend very often anymore. Instead, I check in with my Mom to find out what kind of pies she’s baking and how big of a crowd is expected. She went with peach pies this year. When the day arrives, I always wish I had traveled north to join the fun. The one thing that makes it seem almost like I’m there is baking a pie, and this year’s pie is one I spotted in the March issue of Living magazine. It was presented as a raspberry custard pie, but I found local, organic blueberries and used those instead.
First, the crust was blind baked and allowed to cool. I followed the pate brisee recipe that’s included in the article, and that happens to be the pie crust recipe I use most of the time. Then, flour, sugar, an egg, and cream were whisked together. The blueberries were tossed with sugar and a small bit of salt. The berries were placed in the baked and cooled crust, and the custard was poured over top. The pie went back into the oven for 45 minutes. Once removed from the oven, it was allowed to cool on a rack, and then it was refrigerated overnight. It was simple as far as pies go. I always feel like a pie is easier than it could be when there’s no top crust.
The custard was cold, smooth, and not too rich. The berries were sweetened just enough by the sugar and custard but retained their fresh flavor. Thinking back to all those different kinds of pies at the park, I remember how they were cut into equal-sized pieces and placed on small paper plates with a plastic fork sitting right on the plate. There would be a whole long table full of pieces of various kinds of pie. There were double-crust, lattice-topped, open-faced, chocolate-cream, fruit combinations, rhubarb-studded, you name it, but I don’t recall seeing many custard pies. I told my Mom about the blueberry custard pie I baked, and she commented that it sounded great except for the blueberries. I somehow went my whole life until last weekend before learning that Mom doesn’t like blueberries. That could explain why her pies are always apple, peach, or cherry, but I think I might be able to change her mind about blueberries with this pie.
Yesterday, I mentioned the potluck picnic I attended over the weekend, and this is the tart I brought along with the sugar cookies. For this food blogger event, I wanted to stick to recipes that I had made enough times to be sure of them. This tart isn’t quite as tried and true as the cookies, but it’s been in my binder full of keepers for several years. This comes from the very early days of the Foodnetwork. I believe this was from Cooking Live with Sara Moulton, and it was presented as just a strawberry frangipane tart. I added the raspberries, and really any combination of summer fruits would be delicious. This is an ideal tart for a picnic because there is no pastry cream filling and no need to refrigerate it.
A pate brisee was made first and fitted into a tart pan. The pastry was topped with the frangipane which is made from softened butter, sugar, an egg, finely ground blanched almonds, almond extract, almond-flavored liqueur, and flour. The tart shell with frangipane was then baked for about 40 minutes. After it cooled, it was topped with sliced strawberries and raspberries. And, the last step was to brush on melted and strained strawberry jam. In the past, I’ve always served this with whipped cream, but I thought the cream wouldn’t hold up well at a picnic and left it behind this time.
The frangipane seems to become part of the bottom crust but offers its hint of almond flavor. The fruit is the real star, though, so it has to be ripe and juicy. I used some organic strawberries that had nice, red color throughout when sliced, and the organic raspberries didn’t need any help in looking like little jewels. I love the sheen of a jam topped tart, and the strawberry jam here added a nice reddish glow. This is a great dessert to make several hours in advance as it holds up well. Also on the dessert table at the picnic was a delicious lemon tart made by Anna of Cookie Madness. There was so much good food that day. I’m still thinking about all of it.
Imagine a tiny, little town in the middle of Illinois where the fourth of July is a really big deal and where on that day the park is filled with food stands and carnival rides and a dunk tank and the night-time fireworks show draws a crowd larger than the town’s population, and I grew up there. The fourth of July holiday was the highlight of the summer. Those food stands sold everything from fried fish sandwiches to pulled pork to soup, and pie was always served for dessert. All, or most, of the ladies in town baked pies for the various stands, and the proceeds benefitted local churches and charities. Not much has changed over the years about the celebration, but I don’t make the trip to attend very often anymore. Instead, I check in with my Mom to find out what kind of pies she’s baking and how big of a crowd is expected. She went with peach pies this year. When the day arrives, I always wish I had traveled north to join the fun. The one thing that makes it seem almost like I’m there is baking a pie, and this year’s pie is one I spotted in the March issue of Living magazine. It was presented as a raspberry custard pie, but I found local, organic blueberries and used those instead.
