Have you ever made a crostata? You might have been scared off because it requires making dough, but if you have a food processor, you can use my 60-second pie dough recipe, and that makes this a super quick and easy dessert to make. You can use whatever fruit you like, but the blueberries are so great right now that I used those.
One of the nice things about crostata is that it is free form - there is no crust to crimp or pan to line perfectly. You just roll out the dough, place the filling in the middle and fold the dough up around the filling. Also, you can make this dessert earlier in the day and let it sit in the fridge until you're ready to bake it. Love that!
Blueberry Crostata
for a printable recipe, click here
serves 6-8
I use salted butter in my pie dough recipe, so you don't need to add additional salt
for the dough:
1¾ cups AP flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1½ sticks butter (not unsalted), cut into slices
¼ cup (scant) ice cold water
for the filling and topping:
3 cups fresh blueberries
½ cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 Tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or just turbinado sugar (an unprocessed, coarse sugar)
Make the pie dough:
Place the flour and sugar in a food processor and give it a whirl to blend. Add the slices of butter and process again, pulsing until the butter is all broken up. Add half the ice water and pulse. Keep pulsing until the dough gathers together into a ball. If it doesn't, add a little bit more of the water and pulse. You may not use all the water. Give it a minute to gather up. Place the dough on a floured piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disc. Flour the top of the dough, wrap it up and place it the fridge for at least 30 minutes. You can make this dough ahead and just keep it in the fridge if you want.
Make the filling:
Place the blueberries in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, place the sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon and blend well with a fork or whisk. Pour over the blueberries and toss to coat thoroughly. Add the lemon zest and juice and blend. At this point, you can also place the filling in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the dessert for baking.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place a piece of baking parchment on a rimmed baking sheet. Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap it and let it sit for a good 15 minutes on the plastic wrap. Place another piece of plastic wrap on top of the dough (flour the dough a little). With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 12 to 13-inch disc. I like to smack the dough with my rolling pin to flatten it a little to get it started. If the dough is hard to roll out, let it sit for about 5 minutes and it will relax. Come back to it and it will roll out easily. The plastic wrap will keep it from sticking to the counter and the rolling pin. Wrap the dough a little over the rolling pin and transfer it to the baking parchment.
Place the filling on top of the dough, leaving at least a 2-inch border of dough with no filling. Dot the filling with the butter and fold the dough over the filling, leaving the center with no dough. Brush the dough with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the sugar. Bake for about 45 - 55 minutes, until the dough is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to sit and cool before you serve it. It's great with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
