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A Whole Grain Fruit Tart for Any Season

“No snowballs in the freezer!”

I didn’t mean to get Dan’s hopes up. I had just told him about a Fourth of July tradition in one small New Jersey town where a few families compete to see who can make the biggest snowball.

The catch, of course, is that the snowballs have to be rolled during the winter with actual snow (no cheating with a sno-cone machine!), then saved in the freezer, then transported in coolers to the summer community picnic.

Despite my obsessive labeling and cataloguing of every ingredient stashed in both our freezers–including marinated chicken, an emergency stash of tater tots and fries, Dan’s favorite spaghetti sauce, leftover French toast and pancakes, cookie dough balls, and a couple dozen vacuum-sealed bags of pierogies–there was simply no room to spare for storing a snowball.

In fact, assessing the freezer situation made me realize things were reaching hoarder levels. It was time to clear out the old to make room for summer produce. Not for snowball storage.

rustic whole-grain fruit tart
Photo: Casey Barber

And a tart made with last year’s rhubarb and sour cherries was an efficient way to eat through a few of the freezer bags and reclaim a few cubic inches of space.

This year’s cherries and the first crop of peaches would soon be on their way and bound for deep-dish pie, so tarting things up would keep my dessert roster varied and interesting.

Since I was already clearing the fruit out of the freezer, why not go the extra mile and make the tart crust with those half-empty bins of rye and wheat flours in the refrigerator?

It was either that or make another malted chocolate rye cake, which wouldn’t solve any storage problem other than the one where there’s a cake-shaped hole in my stomach waiting to be filled by a rich slice or two.

Why am I keeping all these whole grain flours in cold storage? Great question!

These flours retain the bran and germ of each kernel, which can make the flour go rancid more quickly than white flour that has been stripped of these nutrient-filled parts of the grain.

Refrigeration or freezing slows down the spoiling process, so if you’re not burning through a bag of rye flour, you’re not throwing your money away.

rustic whole-grain fruit tart
Photo: Casey Barber

This tart could just as easily be made with all all-purpose flour or a half-and-half blend of all-purpose and whole wheat.

But if you’ve got odds and ends of random whole-grain flours taking up space in your fridge or freezer, feel free to play around with this recipe to use them and clear out a little extra room.

It’s also totally fine to use whatever fresh or frozen fruit you have on hand–sweet plums and nectarines mixed with last year’s frozen raspberries, or the first fresh blueberries with frozen peaches are equally appealing.

As for the question of what to eat for breakfast for the coming week? Problem solved there too.

rustic whole-grain fruit tart, via www.www.goodfoodstories.com

Whole Grain Fruit Tart

Yield: 1 9-inch tart
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Additional Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

A whole grain fruit tart can be a mix-and-match affair as a way to use up leftover frozen fruit and blends of whole grain flours. Win-win!

Ingredients

Whole-Grain Tart Crust

  • 3/4 cup (3 ounces; 85 grams) whole wheat or white whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup (1 7/8 ounces; 53 grams) medium or dark rye flour
  • 1/2 cup (1 5/8 ounces; 46 grams) oat flour
  • 2 tablespoons cornmeal
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 4-6 tablespoons ice water
  • nonstick baking spray

Oat Streusel Topping

  • 1/2 cup (1 5/8 ounces; 46 grams) oat flour
  • 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces; 105 grams) brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces; 50 grams) millet
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Fruit Filling

  • 1 cup (7 ounces; 200 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup (1 ounce; 28 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour, if using cherries, or cornstarch for other fruits
  • 2 pounds fruit, like pitted sweet or sour cherries, rhubarb, strawberries, plums, peaches, raspberries, blueberries; go crazy and mix up whatever you're feeling
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Make the crust:

  1. Pulse the wheat, rye, and oat flours together with the cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a food processor a few times to blend.
  2. Add the butter and pulse a few more times, just enough to see small chunks of butter interspersed throughout the flour.
  3. Pulse the water into the dough, a few tablespoons at a time, just until the dough comes together. You may not need the full amount of water; as soon as the dough starts to bind together in chunks, stop pulsing—it can be a little crumbly.

    Don't have a food processor? Use the instructions for making dough by hand in my pie crust tutorial.
  4. Spritz the tart pan with nonstick baking spray.
  5. Press the dough into the pan with your fingers, making sure the crust rises at least 1/4 inch above the edge of the rim.
  6. Refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Make the topping:

  1. While the crust chills in the refrigerator, whisk the flour, brown sugar, millet, and salt together in a large bowl.
  2. Add the butter and blend with a pastry blender or your fingers until a crumbly streusel forms, with moist chunks of flour and sugar intermingled with pea-sized chunks of butter.
  3. Refrigerate until you're ready to bake.

Make the filling, assemble, and bake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the chilled crust in its tart pan on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any fruit juice overflow.
  2. Whisk the sugar and flour or cornstarch for the filling together in a small bowl, then stir together with the fruit and lemon juice in a large bowl.
  3. Pour the filling into the crust and top with the streusel topping in generous, even handfuls.
  4. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the topping is puffy and browned and the filling is bubbling.
  5. Place the entire baking sheet on a wire rack and let the tart cool to room temperature before serving—this lets the fruit filling firm up as it cools so it won't leak out.

Notes

Leftover tart can be wrapped tightly or covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 551Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 46mgSodium: 141mgCarbohydrates: 90gFiber: 10gSugar: 23gProtein: 10g

The nutritional information above is computer-generated and only an estimate.

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