Recipe: Blueberry Tart

Few things are as quintessentially summer as buckets full of berries - and this weekend I dumped piles of blueberries (5 cups to be exact) into what has now become my favorite summer dessert: a Blueberry Tart.

My mom gushed about the recipe she found in Woman's Day for no less than 20 minutes on the phone last weekend - and a few days later, I found the recipe waiting in my mailbox with a note saying, "If you find a good sale on blueberries, you should try this."

Well, I didn't find blueberries on sale. But after such rave reviews from my mom, I was game for dropping my hard-earned cash on full-price berries.

And you know what? She was right. But it didn't get such verbal accolades from my boyfriend and me - just the scrape of forks against the china, moans of delight and clutching our too-full bellies later.

Blueberry Tart
(serves 12 - or just one blueberry-loving couple)

Ingredients
1 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2/3 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut up
1 tbsp white vinegar
5 cups blueberries
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp almond extract (I used vanilla extract instead.)
confectioners' sugar

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat a 9-inch square or round tart pan with a removable bottom with nonstick spray. (If you don't have a pan with a removable bottom, don't worry. The tart is easy to remove.)
2. Pulse 1 cup flour, 2 tbsp sugar and the salt in food processor until blended. Add butter; pulse just until coarse crumbs form. Sprinkle with vinegar; pulse just until blended. Turn out dough and bring together with fingers. (I didn't use a food processor; just a fork to blend - much like making the crust for a pan of lemon bars.)
   
3. Press dough into bottom of tart pan. Top with 3 cups of berries. Mix remaining 2 tbsp flour, 2/3 cup sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Evenly sprinkle over berries; drizzle with almond extract.
4. Bake tart 50 to 60 minutes until bubbly. Remove from oven and top with remaining 2 cups of berries. Let cool in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.
   

Per serving: 200 cal, 2 g pro, 32 g car, 2 g fiber, 8 g fat (5 g sat fat), 20 mg chol, 99 mg sod

Recipe: Beer Bread

We've had a couple of soggy, overcast days that left me aching for comfort food. I didn't have much ambition for an intricate recipe, so I opted for a warm loaf of fresh beer bread (a.k.a. one of the easiest recipes in my arsenal). This hearty bread is best right out of the oven, especially paired with a bowl of thick, creamy soup.

Beer Bread
(serves 6-8)

Ingredients
3 cups flour (sifted - this is the key to keeping the loaf soft and fluffy)
3 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using self-rising flour)
1 teaspoon salt (omit if using self-rising flour)
1/4 cup sugar
1 (12 ounce) can of beer*
1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup is plenty)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Mix dry ingredients and beer.
3. Pour into a greased loaf pan. (I grease and flour the pan.)
4. Pour melted butter over mixture
5. Bake 1 hour. Remove from pan and cool for at least 15 minutes.

*I used New Glarus Brewery's Spotted Cow beer which is - unofficially - Wisconsin's favorite beer. Next time you're in the state, I'll buy you one.