I love the simplicity of this tart. I've been making tarts for many years so I can't believe I'm just now posting one here on the blog. This wonderful tart is easy to make, much more so than the traditional fruit tart which requires cooking custard, chilling and then assembling. I found it on Bea's blog nearly a year ago, and I made it with cherries then, but I can't wait for cherry season so I decided to make with raspberries, but this is so good you could make it with any berry you like. And there is nothing better than baked berries! Lemon thyme is so incredible in this recipe I would never have guessed how good it can be in a dessert. Learning new things all the thyme, ha ha.

I changed the tart dough recipe, the Pine Nut Crust is what I had on hand in the freezer from a previous tart, but you can use any crust recipe you like, she recommends an olive oil crust, but I went with a sweeter dough and I'm pretty happy with it. The nice thing about recipes like this is that you can mix things up a bit, try different doughs, berries, herbs, and more often than not you'll like what you get. Simple. I love this. Recipe below. Enjoy!

Raspberry Tart
(adapted from (crust) The French Laundry Cookbook and (tart) La Tartine Gourmande)
Makes 4 tartlets or 1 9-inch tart

Raspberry Tart

Prepared tart crust (see below)
6 ounces of raspberries
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon lemon thyme, finely chopped
Zest of 1 lemon (or lime)
1/4 cup cane sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Line the bottom of the pre-baked tart crusts (see below) with berries. In small bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar, add the zest and thyme and mix thoroughly. Pour egg custard into tart molds. Bake for 30 minutes or until custard is set and crust is golden.

Remove from oven and let cool on rack.

Pine Nut Crust (makes 3 9-inch crusts)

2 cups (10 ounces) pine nuts
1/3 cup sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
16 tablespoons (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Since the recipe uses only one egg, it would be difficult to cut down, but the extra dough can be frozen for future use.

Place the pine nuts in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the sugar and flour and continue to pulse until the nuts are finely ground.

Place the mixture in a mixing bowl (the dough can be mixed by hand or in a mixer fitted with the paddle)

Add the softened butter, the egg, and vanilla extract and mix to incorporate all the ingredients. Divide the dough into three parts. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before using. The dough can be frozen for future use.

Roll (1 if 3) dough ball on lightly floured surface and place in molds. Make holes with fork to prevent bubbling. Cover the crusts with parchment or foil and fill with rice or weights. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 10 minute and remove the paper and weights. Bake for 5 additional minutes and remove from oven. Let cool slightly.