Blackberry Tarts with a Hazelnut Pastry Crust
Make the most of late summer and early autumn blackberries with these indulgent blackberry tarts. Fold blackberry curd into a mix of mascarpone and whipped double cream to make a luscious, fruit filling then spoon it into crisp, nutty pastry crusts made with spelt flour and hazelnuts. And if you don’t have blackberry curd, you can use any fruit curd you like.
Following on from making a batch of blackberry curd a couple of weeks ago, it was almost a no brainer to use some of it to make these tarts. They’re perfect for entertaining, afternoon tea or just when you feel a bit of indulgence is required.
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See my cookie and privacy statement for further details.
Dive Right In
- Why This Recipe For Blackberry Tarts Works
- Blackberry Tarts with a Hazelnut Crust
- Ingredients, Additions And Substitutions
- How To Make Blackberry Tarts with a Hazelnut Crust
- Ways To Vary These Blackberry Tarts
- Other Fruit Tart Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- Pin It
- The Recipe
Why This Recipe For Blackberry Tarts Works
- Lovely contrast of textures – Crisp, nutty hazelnut pastry provides a delicious contrast to the soft, creamy blackberry filling.
- Intense fruity filling – Blackberry curd gives the mascarpone and whipped cream a concentrated blackberry flavour, rather than relying on fresh berries alone.
- Pastry has plenty of flavour – Spelt flour and roasted hazelnuts give the crust a deeper, nuttier flavour than ordinary sweet pastry.
- Make-ahead friendly – Both the blackberry curd and tart cases can be made in advance, making the final tarts much more manageable when you want to serve them. Ideal for dinner parties.
- A proper seasonal dessert – They make the most of fresh late-summer blackberries while still being substantial enough to enjoy into autumn.
- Not just for blackberry season – Once you have the pastry method and curd-based filling, you can make these tarts with other fruit curds too.
- Look more impressive than they are complicated – There is a little pastry work involved, but the filling itself is wonderfully simple to put together.
Blackberry Tarts with a Hazelnut Crust
What can be more redolent of the onset of autumn than a melange of foraged blackberries and hazelnuts? Turn them into tarts and you have something delicious to savour as summer slowly gives way to autumn.
I already have a blackberry galette recipe on Tin and Thyme, but although that’s absolutely delicious, these gorgeous little pastry tarts are quite different.
They’re inspired by my recipe for mascarpone fruit curd tarts, only these ones don’t have a chocolate lining. They do have roasted hazelnuts in the pastry though along with just a hint of cinnamon.
The subtle acidity and sweetness of blackberries cuts through the rich nutty pastry and the juicy creamy filling contrasts with its crunchy texture.
They make excellent dinner party desserts as you can make most of the elements in advance and just assemble nearer the time. But they’re also great for parties and afternoon tea.
There’s usually a bit of leftover pastry, so I make little cookies out of them. They don’t need quite as long in the oven as the tarts, so it’s probably best to bake them after you’ve pulled the tart cases out.
Ingredients, Additions and Substitutions
You only need three ingredients for the blackberry tart filling, so that’s nice and simple. The pastry is a little more complicated, but so worth the extra effort.
Aromatics
The pastry doesn’t really need much more than the hazelnuts for flavour, but I like to add a touch of ground cinnamon to up its game a little. It’s fine to leave it out or swap it for a pinch of cloves or the same amount of allspice, if you like.
Blackberry Curd
As you’d expect, homemade blackberry curd gives most of the flavour to the filling. It’s slight tang cuts through the richness of the mascarpone and double cream, keeping it bright and fruity.
As detailed in the Ways To Vary These Blackberry Tarts section, you can swap the blackberry curd for any fruit curd you prefer or happen to have to hand.
Dairy
Rich mascarpone cheese makes up the bulk of the filling. But I’ve added some whipped double cream to lighten it a little.
Unsalted butter is best for pastry, but it’s fine to use salted if that’s all you have.
Egg
You only need the egg white for this recipe. Omitting the yolk helps to keep this pastry nice and crisp and the filling is already rich enough.
There are plenty of recipes you can make with just one egg yolk. I made custard this time, which is great as it keeps well in the fridge for three to four days. For inspiration, here are the recipes on Tin and Thyme that use only egg yolks.
Flour
I’ve used wholemeal spelt for the pastry. This flour is my favourite for making cakes and pastries and its nuttiness combines brilliantly with the hazelnuts to make a well flavoured nutty crust.
Hazelnuts
Roasted hazelnuts have such a distinctive flavour, you don’t need many of them to carry the flavour. They also combine well with the nutty notes of wholemeal spelt flour.
I roast hazelnuts myself in my air fryer, but you can buy ready roasted to make life a little easier.
If you prefer, it’s fine to use roasted almonds instead.
Sugar
You don’t need any sugar for the filling as the blackberry curd is sweet enough. However, sweetening the pastry with icing sugar helps to balance things out as well as keep the crust crisp.
I don’t like my pastry overly sweet, so you may want to add an extra tablespoon of icing sugar.
How To Make Blackberry Tarts with a Hazelnut Crust
The filling for these blackberry tarts is a cinch. However, the hazelnut crust is a bit more involved. If you’re used to making your own pastry, there’s only one additional step. If pastry making is new to you, give it a go. It’s so much better than anything you can buy.
Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for cooking times, measurements and quantities of ingredients used.
Step 1. Roast Hazelnuts
First off, roast the hazelnuts. Place them on a small baking tray if using the oven or add them directly to your air fryer basket if that’s what you’re going to use.
Roast at 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4) for ten minutes in the oven or 160℃ (320℉) for six to eight minutes in the air fryer (affiliate link) or until golden. Give them a shake half way through to ensure even roasting and to check on how they’re doing.
As you can see from the images below, I slightly over roasted mine, but as they didn’t taste burnt, I used them and they were fine.
Leave to cool for a few minutes, then rub the skins of in a clean tea towel, sheet of kitchen towel or your hands. As it’s such a small amount, I used my hands. Discard the skins and blow on them gently to remove any bits left behind.
Step 2. Make Pastry
Cut the butter into smallish pieces. This makes it easier to rub into the flour. Make sure it’s fridge cold. I usually make my pastry by hand, but by all means use a food processor if you prefer.
In a large bowl, rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. There’s no need to sieve any of it first. Try to do this as quickly as possible if you have a warm room or hot hands as you don’t want the butter to melt.
Grind the hazelnuts into a meal in a food processor or coffee grinder. Don’t worry if they’re not finely ground, better that than they turn oily.
Stir into the flour mix. I use a flat-bladed knife to make pastry – a trick I learned from my grandmother.
Make a well in the centre and add the egg white. Depending on the size of your egg, you may need a splash of water too. Mix together with a flat-bladed knife.
Bring the mixture together with your hands to form a dough. If it’s still too crumbly, add another splash of water. But be careful not to make the dough wet.
Shape into a flattish disc and cover in wax wrap or a plastic bag and place in the fridge to rest for half an hour.
Step 3. Roll Pastry
Set the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out thinly to about 3-4 mm (⅛ inch) and cut six circles just big enough to fill a tart tin (affiliate link). I use a small saucer for this.
Lightly butter the tins, then press the pastry circles into them and trim the tops with a knife. Gather any offcuts and roll again as necessary.
Top Tip – Use any leftover pastry to make little biscuits to decorate the tarts or just eat on their own.
Step 4. Bake Tarts
Place the tarts on a baking tray. I usually prick the bottoms in several places with a fork, but I actually forgot to do that this time and it didn’t seem to matter.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven until lightly golden but not brown. Then leave to cool on a wire rack.
If baking little biscuits with the leftover pastry, they won’t need as long in the oven. I prefer to bake them after I’ve pulled the tarts out, which also means the tarts can cook whilst I stamp out the biscuits.
Step 4. Make Filling
Whilst the tarts are baking, mix the mascarpone cheese with the fruit curd in a bowl until smooth.
Whip the cream until you get soft peaks, then stir carefully into the blackberry mixture until just combined.
Step 5. Fill Tarts
Carefully remove the cooled pastry cases from the tins and place on a board or platter.
Divide the blackberry curd mixture between the six tart cases and level the tops.
Decorate with as many fresh blackberries as you see fit.
Ways To Vary These Blackberry Tarts
If small tarts aren’t your thing or you don’t have any suitable tart cases, you can make a large fruit tart instead. This amount of pastry will make a standard 20 cm (8 inch) tart. However if you fancy something different to blackberry or hazelnut, read on.
Here are a few ideas on how to make these fruit curd tarts your own.
Use any fruit curd you like. Lemon curd works very nicely with blackberries and you’ll get a good colour contrast too. Use lemon curd in the filling and top with fresh blackberries.
Decorate raspberry curd tarts with raspberries and apricot curd tarts with poached apricot halves. For orange curd tarts, candied orange peel looks good as does candied lemon peel on lemon curd tarts. Whether you dip the peels in chocolate is entirely up to you.
Swap the roasted hazelnuts for almonds or even pistachios, if you’re feeling flush. Apple curd works brilliantly with hazelnuts, whereas apricot curd and orange curd go better with almonds. Both raspberry curd and lime curd go well with pistachio nuts. And for passionfruit curd, macadamia nuts in the pastry are brilliant.
Other Fruit Tart Recipes You Might Like
- Apple & almond pastries
- Apricot frangipane tart
- Fig tarts with white chocolate & mascarpone filling
- Medlar tart
- Persimmon tarts with chilli & ginger
- Quince tart
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these blackberry tarts, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or tips for using blackberries or making nutty pastry?
Please rate the recipe too. And do tag me @choclette8 on Instagram with your images, I really enjoy seeing your take on my recipes.
For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?
If you’d like more blackberry recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Blackberry Tarts. PIN IT.
Blackberry Tarts with a Hazelnut Pastry Crust
Equipment
- air fryer (affiliate link) optional
Ingredients
Pastry
- 125 g wholemeal flour (whole wheat) (I used spelt)
- 1 pinch fine sea or rock salt
- 40 g icing sugar
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 60 g unsalted butter fridge cold and cut into cubes
- 25 g hazelnuts roasted
- 1 egg white
Filling
- 125 g mascarpone cheese
- 50 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 4 tbsp blackberry curd or fruit curd of your choosing
- blackberries for decoration
Instructions
Pastry
- In a large bowl, rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.125 g wholemeal flour (whole wheat), 1 pinch fine sea or rock salt, 40 g icing sugar, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, 60 g unsalted butter
- Grind the hazelnuts into a meal in a food processor or coffee grinder, then stir into the flour mix.25 g hazelnuts
- Make a well in the centre and add the egg white. Depending on the size of your egg, you may need a splash of water too. Mix together with a flat-bladed knife.1 egg white
- Bring the mixture together with your hands to form a dough. If it’s still too crumbly, add another splash of water. But be careful not to make the dough wet.
- Shape into a flattish disc and cover in wax wrap or a plastic bag and place in the fridge to rest for half an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
- Roll the dough out thinly to about 3-4 mm (⅛ inch) and cut circles just big enough to fill a 10 cm (4 inch) loose bottomed fluted tart tin.
- Press the pastry circles into 6 buttered tart tins and trim the tops with a knife. Gather any offcuts and roll again as necessary.
- Place the tarts on a baking tray and prick the bottoms in several places with a fork.
- Bake for 10 minutes in the middle of the oven or until lightly golden, then leave to cool on a wire rack.
Filling
- Meanwhile mix the mascarpone cheese with the fruit curd in a bowl until smooth.125 g mascarpone cheese, 4 tbsp blackberry curd
- Whip the cream until you get soft peaks, then stir carefully into the blackberry mixture until just combined.50 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- Carefully remove the pastry cases from the tins and place on a board.
- Divide the blackberry curd mixture between the six tart cases and level.
- Decorate with as many fresh blackberries as you see fit.blackberries
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
This post contains affiliate links which are marked with an asterisk* or (affiliate link). If you buy through a link, it won’t cost you any more, but I might get a small commission. Thank you for your support of the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.