Blueberry tart

SERVES 8-10 // PREP TIME 20 MINS // COOK 1½ HRS (PLUS INFUSING)

“If you can get everything ready to go for this tart and bake it last minute, great, but otherwise, the morning of the barbecue is fine,” says Pynt. “We use blueberries, but use whatever seasonal fruit you have on hand.” Begin this recipe a day ahead to infuse the cream. 375 gm (3 punnets) blueberries, plus extra to serve

Pure icing sugar, for dusting

CRÈME CHANTILLY

500 ml (2 cups) pouring cream 50 gm honey

50 gm caster sugar

½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped

SWEET PASTRY

150 gm softened butter

100 gm caster sugar

30 gm almond meal

1 egg

250 gm (1⅔ cups) plain flour

ALMOND FILLING

300 gm unsalted butter,

softened

300 gm caster sugar 300 gm almond meal 150 gm eggs (about

4 small eggs)

1 For crème Chantilly, bring cream, honey, sugar and vanilla to the boil in a saucepan over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Cool, then refrigerate overnight. Remove vanilla bean and whisk cream to soft peaks just before serving.

2 For pastry, beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until pale and creamy. Beat in almond meal, then egg and flour, scraping down sides of bowl. Turn out onto a clean work surface, form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, then refrigerate for 1 hour to rest.

3 Roll out pastry between two sheets of baking paper to a 30cm round, then line a lightly greased 28cm diameter tart tin with pastry, pressing into edges and trimming excess. Chill for 1 hour

4 Preheat oven to 140°C.

Place tart tin on an oven tray and blind-bake until pastry is set and just starting to colour (20-30 minutes; see cook’s notes p182).

5 Meanwhile, for almond filling, whisk the butter and sugar in an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until pale and creamy. Stir in almond meal, then gradually incorporate egg until well combined. Gently spread evenly into pastry case.

6 Cover tart with two-thirds of the blueberries. Increase oven to 160°C and bake tart until the filling starts to set (30 minutes). Top with remaining blueberries, reserving some to serve, and bake until tart is golden around the edges, just set in the centre and the filling temperature reaches 92°C (15-25 minutes). Cool, then top with extra blueberries, dust with icing sugar and serve with crème Chantilly. Wine suggestion The first thing that came to mind was the Switch Organic Wines Petit Verdot by Vanessa Altmann. It has lots of dark fruit, but is still quite bright. ●