The blackberries are rolling in around here right now.
When I lived in Birmingham, we planted some spectacular blackberries in our yard and when I moved last year, one of the last things my dad did before we drove off in the moving truck was to dig up a few baby blackberry plants to take with us to Georgia. He planted them and they have been growing like crazy in our backyard. I’m SO glad he did that, it would have been a shame to leave those plants behind. They came from one of my favorite plant nurseries in Alabama, Petals from the Past. You should visit them when they have their blackberry and blueberry festival in July (I think!). It’s a spectacular sight!
So, fast forward to this year.
Those berries are getting bigger and bigger, starting out red and shiny.
Here they are green turning to red, not quite ready yet.
A new addition to my dad’s garden this year, Mr. Owl is from Walmart and he’s hoping this will help scare the birds away from his figs, blackberries, and blueberries. Fingers crossed!
So, now we have these….which turned into this:
A beautiful blackberry curd tart. Mom found this recipe in my Cooking Light magazine and whipped it right up.
And yes, it is delish. She strained the big seeds out (since these are ginormous blackberries) and made a really smooth filling.
And yes, we have enjoyed this Blackberry Curd Tart very much, thank you!
Someone asked in the comments how my mom gets the seeds out of these blackberries and I had to ask her. I don’t think I’ve ever paid attention to this gadget, but this is an old-fashioned sieve and she used it for many things with small seeds, but it works great for getting the seeds out of these HUGE blackberries. She may use cheesecloth with this at times too. The tart is very smooth without the seeds.
If you have access to blackberries too, you might want to try this one. Very tasty with the almond crust and bursting with blackberry flavor.
Blackberry Curd Tart
(from June, 2012 Cooking Light)
Recipe by:Â Julianna Grimes
4.5 oz. all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup almonds, toasted and finely ground
3/8 tsp. salt, divided
8 TBL chilled butter, divided
Baking Spray with flour
3 cups fresh blackberries
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 TBL cornstarch
2 large egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
3 large egg whites
1/3 cup water
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level. Combine flour, powdered sugar, almonds, and 1/8 tsp. salt in a food processor; pulse to combine. Cut 7 TBL butter into small pieces. Add to flour mixture; pulse just until mixture resembles coarse meal. Press in the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch round removable-bottom tart pan coated with baking spray. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
- Combine berries, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, and juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 6 minutes. Place mixture in a blender, let stand 5 minutes. Blend until smooth. Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a medium bowl, pressing on solids. Discard solids. Wipe pan clean; return mixture to pan. Combine cornstarch and egg yolks, stirring until smooth. Stir yolk mixture into berry mixture; bring to a boil over medium-low heat. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 tsp. salt and remaining 1 TBL butter. Scrape mixture into a bowl; cover surface directly with plastic wrap. Chill.
- Combine 1/8 tsp. salt, cream of tartar, and egg whites in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Combine remaining 1 cup granulated sugar and 1/3 cup water in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 250*. Gradually pour hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over egg whites, beating at medium speed, then at high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Preheat broiler.
- Spoon curd over crust; top with meringue. Broil 2 minutes or until golden.
Serves 12
Enjoy this lip-smacking blackberry dessert!
Looks great! Wonderful post!
We have some blackberries growing at the back of our property! I’m going to gather some today and make this pie. It looks so delicious.
The recipe doesn’t list the amount of blackberries. How much? Looks yummy!!!!
It looks yummy… wonder if you could use blueberries instead of blackberries? Hmmmmm??? I am just not into blackberries, not sure why?
thanks for sharing!!
That looks sooo yummy. Beautiful photos too! By husband would do flips if I made that for him.
How essential is the almond base? Do you think it would work as well with a plain base? (have a nut allergy but this looks delicious!
Rhoda, your parents are just amazing! They are willing to have a go at anything! Great work you are all doing..
Suzyq
Sounds so good and looks fabulous. Hugs, Marty
This looks censational and sound great. I will have to give this a try. Thanks for the recipe.
Cynthia
Have to tell you that we have a plastic hawk like your dad’s owl. My husband had is set up in the blueberry bushes, and as we started picking this year, we discovered that a bird had made a nest and had baby birds up inside of it! Too funny!
Lemon, almonds, meringue and blackberries! YUM!!! You find the greatest recipes! I have a few blackberries that cropped up in my yard and I think I’ll try this before I transplant them. Can I make it without straining them?
CTD
P.S. We have the same owl, bought to scare away the moles…it scared me few times at night, but didn’t do thing for the moles.
I would love to know how your mom strains the blackberries! I have tried many different ways with next to no luck. I love making blackberry jam, but the seeds turn many people away. Let me know if you will! Thanks!
That looks delish! My daughters and I picked blueberries from Petals from the Past this past weekend. The berries were so good. We ate them up very quickly and will need to make another trip there this weekend.
My mom has that very same sieve she uses when making blackberry cobbler. She strains the seeds when making that dessert.
That pie looks delicious, I have not seen one with a meringue topping before apart from Lemon meringue pie so this is a little bit different. I will definitely be trying it next blackberry season in New Zealand.
I have just posted a really delicious Passion fruit no cook cheesecake recipe on my blog today which I hope you will get time to check out. It is seriously the best cheesecake ever 🙂
Lee ☺
I love to bake, so I think I will be making this one very soon! Looks delish!
I see your dad has fig trees?! That brings back tons of memories for me. Up here in NY, it’s advisable to cover them in the winter, which frankly looks quite unattractive. I assume in Georgia you don’t need to do that. Figs are great eaten just plain, or with a little goat cheese and honey under the broiler for a minute or two. Yummy!
Hi Rhoda! Thanks for sharing this recipe!! I forwarded your post to our House Chef aka Sweet Husband Who Loves To Cook and he whipped it up–This is one fabulous dessert! Re: Reader questions…The crust is like a crisp cookie, the meringue has a marshmallow creme quality–the strained blackberry filling is sweet-tart. The contrast between the three layers makes this Tart Sing–I would not change a thing! BTW, I think it would make a fun 4th of July treat…the blackberry filling is reddish so if garnished with fresh blackberries…red/white/blue!