Fruity Crostata Delicious Recipes

It's already September and soon summer will come to an end. I try to enjoy all the locally grown fruits as much a possible. Each trip to the produce place I will haul back way too much fruit for the 3 of us but everything just look so good and I just can't resist it. We like to eat them fresh but there are times I like to bake dessert with them. Here is one of the dessert which I like to bake using summer fruits like strawberries, cherries, blackberries, blue berries and plums.

Crostata is an Italian name for a free form tart baked on a cookie sheet rather than a pie pan. It's baked on a pastry with some fruits on the top. The side of the pastry is folded over the fruit filling to keep in the juices.

Ingredients for the Pastry

1 1/2 cups of flour
2 tbsp of sugar
1/4 tsp of salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) of cold butter cut into small chunks
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp of water, plus or more if needed

Filling

4 cups of any kind of fruits in season
zest of a lemon
2 tbsp of sugar
2 tsp of flour
juice of half lemon

Glaze

1 large egg - beaten
2 tbsp of sugar - for sprinkle

To make pastry combined flour, sugar, salt in a mixing bowl. Add in butter and rub the butter into the flour with your hand until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Add in egg yolk and pour in ice water. Bind the dough until it holds together without being too wet or sticky. Form the dough into a disk and warp in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 min before using.

To make filling combined all the fruits, lemon juice, sugar, zest and flour in a large mixing bowl. Toss the fruits gently and set aside.

Prepare a baking tray and line with parchment paper. Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F.

Sprinkle some flour on the counter and rolling pin and gently roll out the dough to about 1/4" thick. It doesn't have to be perfect as you want a rustic looking tart. Transfer pastry to the baking pan. Spoon the fruit mixture into the center of the dough leaving 2" border all around. Brush the border with some egg wash.
Lift the edge of the pastry to the filling leaving the fruit exposed in the center. Gently fold and pinch the pastry to seal any cracks.

Brush the pastry with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake crostata for 30-40 min or until the crust is golden brown and fruit is bubbly and tender.

Remove from oven and serve warm or at room temperature on its own or with some vanilla ice-cream.

Note : I made the crostata into 4 individual serving rather than a large one. You can add more sugar to the filling.