Makes 10 (3-inch) tartelettes
Hazelnut Shortbread Crust
½ cup of hazelnuts, toasted and ground
1 cup of flour
½ cup of powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 stick + 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) butter, cold and cut into tiny pieces
1 extra-large egg yolk
Put the hazelnuts, flour, powdered sugar and salt in your food processor and pulse a time or two to combine. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse quickly 6 to 8 times until the mixture has small and largish pebbles throughout.
Pour in the egg yolk and pulse until you have lots of large, slightly moist crumbles. Dump this onto your wooden board or a flat surface and roll it out to ⅛-inch thick and cut circles slightly bigger than your tart shells (or muffin tins). Press these into your tart shells and prick the bottom of each one with your fork a few times. Refrigerate or freeze until firm. Preheat oven to 375°F and bake until shells are brown on the edges. Let cool and fill. (You may bake these in advance, wrap them individually, and keep in the fridge.)
Blueberry Filling
18 ounces of blueberries, rinsed
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
½ to ¾ cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
Put ¼ of blueberries with ½ cup of water in a saucepan & bring to a boil. In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water.
When the blueberries come to a boil, lower the heat, add the cornstarch-water mixture, sugar and lemon juice. Stir, lower the heat and let this cook until it thickens, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the rest of the blueberries. Let cool completely and refrigerate. Fill tart shells right before serving.
Ellise Pierce is the Cowgirl Chef and author of COWGIRL CHEF: Texas Cooking with a French Accent (Running Press). Read her blog and watch her cooking videos at cowgirlchef.com.
Ellise Pierce is the Cowgirl Chef and author of COWGIRL CHEF:
Texas Cooking with a French Accent (Running Press). Read her blog
(www.cowgirlchef.com), follow her on Twitter (@cowgirlchef) and Instagram
(cowgirlchef)
