Autumn Tart
Autumn Tart is a traditional British recipe for a classic autumnal wild food dessert tart with a blackberry, sloe, crab apple and rose hip filling. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Autumn Tart.
prep time
30 minutes
cook time
165 minutes
Total Time:
195 minutes
Additional Time:
(+straining and chilling)
Serves:
8
Rating: 
Tags : Wild FoodDessert RecipesBaking RecipesBritish Recipes
I’d been preparing an autumnal hedgerow jelly — a blend of blackberries, sloes, rose hips, haws and crab apples when I thought to myself if I could make a tart from essentially the same mixture. What I ended up with is based on a cross between an Italian
crostata di marmellata and a fruit-flavoured custard tart. Custard flavoured with autumn wild fruit puree. Looking at the hedgerows this year, I noticed two distinct types of sloes. One was larger and sweeter than the other and I could eat it raw (but my tolerance for sour is high). However, the distinction was really noticeable. So, I collected the smaller, tarter sloes for sloe gin and used the larger, sweeter, fruit for autumnal jellies and this tart.
Ingredients:
For the Pastry:
75g butter, diced
150g plain flour
2 tsp golden caster sugar
Ice cold water, as needed
For the Filling:
500g blackberries
200g ripe, plump, sloes
200g crab apples, chopped (no need to remove the peel and cores)
200g rose hips
100g golden caster sugar
5 tbsp icing sugar
2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
Method:
Preparing the rose hips is the most involved process. The seeds are irritant so I top and tail them, quarter them lengthways then scrape out and discard the seeds with a spoon. The remaining flesh is then finely chopped.
Place the rose hip skins in a small pan with 250ml (1 cup) water, bring to a simmer and cook for 1 hour, topping up the water as needed. After this time, allow to cool then puree until smooth in a blender. Scrape into a larger pan then add the crab apples and sloes. Add 250ml (1 cup) more water then bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 40 minutes. After this time mash the ingredients with a potato masher and cook for 10 minutes more.
Turn into a fine-meshed sieve and allow the liquid to drain out, pressing down on the fruit with the back of a spoon. Turn the resultant puree back into the saucepan and add the blackberries. Bring the mixture to a simmer, cook for 20 minutes then pass through a fine-meshed sieve to remove the seeds.
Return the puree to the pan and stir in the sugar. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Mix the icing sugar and cornflour with 5 tbsp water to a smooth slurry then stir this into the fruit puree. Take off the heat and set aside.
In the meantime, prepare the pastry. Stir together the flour and sugar into a bowl. Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add a splash of cold water and bring the mixture together as a dough (add more water if needed). Form the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm (plastic wrap) and chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Liberally butter a pie dish. Turn the chilled pastry out onto a floured work surface and roll out slightly larger than the size of your dish. Use to line the base and sides of the pie dish then trim off the excess. Prick the base with the tines of a fork, line with baking parchment and fill with baking beads or beans. Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180C and bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool as you finish the filling (remove the parchment and baking beads).
Once the filling is ready, pour into the prepared pie shell. If desired you can roll out the remaining pastry, cut into strips and make a latticework on top of the tart. Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes more, until the filling is set and the pastry is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving. The filling will solidify as it cools.