Gooseberry Polenta Tart

  • Prep time:

  • Cook time:

  • Total time:

  • Portion/Yield:

    Serves 6

  • Difficulty:

    Easy

The sharpness of the gooseberries in this tart is a truly delicious. This is a easy and fairly straight forward recipe. As with all pastry recipes the pastry will need to rest and you may look at the preparation time and think it’s time consuming, however that is mainly resting time. The actual making and preparation takes hardly any effort and time. You do not have to have a special skill for this tart as it’s meant to look rustic.

The polenta pastry is almost like a shortbread and has a sticky consistency in the raw. My secret ingredient for this recipe is a dab of custard powder, it gives the pastry the short texture and I like the custard powder as it enriches the pastry.

This gooseberry polenta tart recipe is perfect for summers picnic or served at the end of a family barbecue on a hot summers day. I make the tart a day in advance and set aside at room temperature covered under a clean tea towel. It’s equally as delicious served warm or at room temperature. To re-heat place in the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes.

In you like this recipe a lot then make it with alternative fruit flavours, replace the gooseberries with slices of fresh raw rhubarb, apricot quarters, plum quarters, raspberries, cherries or mixed berries.

It’s a reliable number, a great recipe to have up your sleeve, guaranteed a few oohs and aahs….

Ingredients & Method

  • 50g caster sugar
  • 125g unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 medium free range egg yolks
  • 125g plain flour
  • 5g custard powder
  • 50g polenta + 45g extra polenta
  • 400g gooseberries
  • 1 egg white
  • 12 sugar lumps

First prepare the pastry, cream the butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, cream well. Add the custard powder and flour and mix until the pastry comes together. The pastry should be sticky and is fairly soft. Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and refrigerate for one hour.

Line a 35cm x 10cm x 2.5 cm baking tray with parchment paper, roll the pastry out between two sheets of parchment paper until 6 – 8 mm thick. Gently line the tray and let the pastry have a 4cm over hang, this will be folded over to encase the gooseberries.Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Wash the gooseberries and remove the stalks, drain well.

Whip the egg white until fluffy and slightly aerated. Fold the drained gooseberries into the whipped egg white and fold in the remaining polenta.

Spoon the gooseberries into the lined polenta pastry case, crumb over the sugar lumps. fold the sides of the pastry over and press to the ends together to make a smooth edge encasing the gooseberries.photo of Gooseberry Polenta Slice

Bake the for 40 minutes at 170°C, then turn the oven up to 180°C and bake for further 15 minutes. The pastry will be cooked and golden brown. Let the tart cool on a cooling rack before cutting into 6 even size slices.

Serve warm with whipped Chantilly or pouring cream or custard.

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