Blueberry hazelnut tarte Bretonne

Petite version

I’ve extolled the virtues of sablé Breton on a number of occasions over the years and simply must return to it now and again. The dough is versatile and one that I can make ahead and keep handy in the freezer for a couple of months. As we ease into the late spring and summer seasons, a Breton dough base is perfect either baked with fruit or jam or baked au naturel and topped with fresh fruits and luscious creams. Mmmmm . . . I can just taste them now. Fulton Farmers Market here I come!

Just one of the beauties of this dough is it’s made with egg yolks so . . . . . . When I need to amass egg whites for some of my faves like financier, dacquoise or Swiss meringue buttercream, Breton dough comes to the rescue. Separate the eggs, yolks go into the dough and whites (which can sit in the fridge for a week or so and can also be frozen) are on hand for whatever. I love that.

As an aside, a few other basics that offer me the same egg white saving opportunities are the classic custard sauce/ice cream base crème anglaise or the familiar crème pâtissiére, crème brulée and pots de crème. Of course it’s generally best to make these egg and dairy based goodies within a couple of days of enjoying them, so some planning ahead is important. But they’ll all give you plenty of whites to add to your stash.

I do digress. On to la tarte Bretonne!

The dough comes together easily - one plan ahead note is the butter should be soft. Let it sit out an hour or so, mise out the rest of the ingredients and you’re ready to go. Once mixed you can either wrap in plastic and chill for later or you can shape a rough circle and simply press it into a buttered ring or mold. NOTE: I love baking this dough in silicone flexi-molds which don’t have to be buttered. Yay - one less step!

Here I sub in hazelnut flour for the almond but you can do the same with pretty much any ground nut. Using a buttered 220 mm / 9” tart ring, I guestimated about 360 g of dough to press in the bottom and build up the sides. It’s up to you to experiment a bit, depending on how thin or thick you want your finished dough to be. Thicker than a typical tarte crust is my preference here. You can use even more dough (up it to 400 or 425 g) for a base that’s a delicious, buttery cross between tarte and cake. Yum.

Just for comparison sake, if I’m making a standard tarte with let’s say pâte sucrée, a good rule of thumb is to take the diameter of your ring (e.g. 220 mm), add 30 g to that number and that gives you a decent estimate for the amount of dough for that size ring - 250 g. It works pretty well with inches/ounces too - 9” tart uses about 9 ounces of dough.

Once the dough is pressed into the ring, you can cover and refrigerate it for a few hours or overnight if you’re not quite ready to proceed.

I made a quick hazelnut crumble with 50 g sugar and 75 g whole wheat pastry flour (all purpose is fine too) mixed in a medium bowl; sand in 60 g of cool, cubed butter to coarse crumbs and add 30 g of toasted and chopped hazelnuts. It yields plenty for this type of project and you can freeze any leftover for next time.

My store bought blueberry jam is Bonne Maman, but I also like St. Dalfour, both of which have some great flavor options.

Heat the oven to 350ºF.

Create a layer of fresh blueberries mixed with a few spoonfuls of jam (eyeball it) over the dough. No fancy fillings here folks!

Top it with a decent layer of crumble.

Bake about 25-30 minutes until the edges and crumble are nicely browned and the jam/berries look bubbly and set. Reduce oven to 325ºF if you feel your edges are browning too quickly. It’s up to you to keep on eye on things!

I made this baby for Easter dessert, served with homemade raspberry ice cream. The end result was a nutty, chewy, buttery, jammy, fruity and delicious treat which paired so beautifully with the creamy raspberry.

Truth be told, I prefer small individual desserts to larger, sliceable versions. I made a petite version ahead of time as a test, and it worked so well with a rustic scoop of ice cream right on top. Steve and I enjoyed our taste test while the tartelette was fresh and still a tad warm. Oh my.

There are so many ways to create your own tarte Bretonne. Trust me, you won’t regret it!

Meanwhile spring keeps springing with flowers popping, sightings of turtles on logs, herons flying overhead, red wing blackbirds with their shrill call, garter snakes on the path and spring peepers singing to us all.

Enjoy the season and stay safe.