I don’t know if it’s the weather or the transit of Venus, or just that it takes 22 years for them to reach maturity, but our olallieberry bushes are going bonkers. For the uninitiated, an olallieberry is a cross between a loganberry and a youngberry, which are in turn crosses between a raspberry and a blackberry, and a blackberry and a dewberry, respectively. I have no idea what a dewberry is. (Wikipedia has the full, Game of Thrones-worthy pedigree.) They only fruit for about three weeks a year, and we normally get just a few precious handfuls. But not the class of 2012! I’ve been putting the berries on everything (including these corncakes), and even had to freeze some (!). Olallieberries are terrific for any sweet preparation as they are quite tart—unlike Game of Thrones, ancestry is not destiny here. (And…now I’ll stop with that analogy.) They make the most delicious, dark purple ice cream you could ever hope to eat, but I don’t have an ice cream maker so I made this tart, featuring a nice layer of frangipane studded with the tangy berries. If you find yourself in the company of some ollalieberries, try it; but any of their progenitors would work well too.
Makes one 9″ tart
1 batch tart or pie dough of your choice (my favorite is the pâte brisée in Chez Panisse Vegetables
3 ounces (1/3 cup) sweetened almond paste
2 tablespoons butter, room temp
1 tablespoon flour
1 egg
Drop of almond extract
1 teaspoon booze (kirsch, Cointreau, etc. I used our friend’s homemade plum eau de vie.)
Pinch sea salt
About 1 1/2 cups olallieberries, rinsed and air-dried
Raw sugar for sprinkling & milk for brushing
1. Heat the oven to 400F (make sure the rack is right in the middle).
2. Roll out your (very cold) dough and press it into a tart pan. (I use a 9″ springform.) Be sure to fold down the edges so the walls are double-thickness.
3. To make the frangipane, cream the almond paste and butter. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until fluffy. If it gets too warm and runny from the heat of the mixer, refrigerate briefly so it’s just spreadable.
4. Spread the frangipane into the tart shell and arrange the berries over the top. Sprinkle lightly with raw or turbinado sugar and lightly brush the exposed tart dough with milk.
5. Bake until the edges are golden, the berries are bubbling and the frangipane looks set and slightly dry. This takes about 25 minutes. Let cool slightly before freeing it from the tart ring.