Rye Crust Blackberry Tartlets

Every time I leave the house lately, I return with more berries. I can’t stop myself. The season is too short here. Strawberries make a brief appearance at farmers’ markets, and blackberries come and go almost as quickly. When I see them, I grab them. The last bag full of blackberries I brought home were destined for little, rustic tartlets, and I knew I’d find a good option for the crusts in Good to the Grain. There’s a Rustic Rye Dough that’s used for Apricot Boysenberry Tarts in the book, and that was just the kind of whole grain dough I had in mind. The dough is made like a rough puff pastry. It’s rolled into a rectangle, folded into thirds like a letter, turned and rolled and folded two more times before being chilled. The result was flaky crusts with the added flavor of whole grain rye flour that made nice containers for fresh blackberries mixed with berry jam.

I mixed the dough by hand, but it could also be made in a food processor. Rye flour, all-purpose flour, a little sugar, and salt were sifted together in a bowl. Cold butter was worked into the flour mixture, and then apple cider vinegar and ice water were added. At that point, the dough was wrapped in plastic wrap and chilled for an hour. Next, the dough was rolled into a rectangle and folded into thirds. For the first fold, the dough was a little crumbly, but it came together during the next turns and folds. The seam of the folded dough was turned 90 degrees, and it was rolled into a rectangle and folded again. This was repeated one more time before wrapping the dough in plastic and chilling it again. While the dough chilled, the blackberries were combined with some berry jam. Since I was making little tartlets, I worked with half the dough at a time, rolled it out, and cut it into five-inch circles. The blackberry and jam mixture was spooned into the center of each dough circle, and the dough was gathered around the fruit. The tartlets were placed on a baking sheet which went into the freezer before being baked. Just before going into the oven, the tartlet edges were brushed with egg wash, a mix of turbinado sugar and cinnamon was sprinkled on the egg wash, and I added a few thyme leaves.

For serving, I topped the tartlets with fresh thyme sprigs from my herb garden for a pop of green on the sticky, dark, blackberry filling. I’ll still have blueberries for a bit when the local blackberries are gone. And, when all of this year’s berries are gone and I can no longer get my fix, at least there will still be peaches.

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