Blackberry and Pear Tart

Crust:
3/4 cup flour (whole wheat, whole wheat pastry flour, white wheat flour, or oat flour)
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup cold butter, cubed
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1.5 tsp. ground ginger, minced fresh ginger, or minced candied ginger

Filling:
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbls. flour
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup blackberries
2 Tbls. milk, or nut milk
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 pear, cored and sliced thinly

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Crust: Stir together the flour and oats. Cut in the butter until crumbly and there's no dry powder. Stir in the sour cream/yogurt. It should be a somewhat wet dough. Sprinkle flour in the pie tin, then dump the dough in and press it evenly onto the bottom and sides. (No need to refrigerate or roll out).

Filling: Mix flour and brown sugar well. Stir in sour cream, berries, milk, and cloves. Mix well and spread into the crust. Lay the pear slices over the cream.

Bake for about 45 minutes until the crust is golden brown, the edges of the pear slices are browned, and the cream is bubbling.

In Outcast of Redwall, this tart has a latticed top. As you can see, my lattice work on this looks pretty stupid. It's because I barely had enough dough for it. I prefer the look of the pear slices arranged prettily.

Apple and Blackcurrant Flan

1/2 cup blackcurrant jam
1-2 Tbls. butter
2 1/2 cups apples, chopped into 1" pieces
4 eggs
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbls. maple syrup

Preheat oven to 325.

Butter a pie tin and spread the blackcurrant jam over the bottom.

Boil apple pieces in water until soft. Drain apples, and puree with the half-and-half, making it as smooth as possible. Beat the pureed mixture with the eggs, maple syrup, and spices. Pour into the pie tin over the jam.

Bake for 45-60 minutes, until the custard is set and a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before serving.

This could have more spices added to it, if desired.

Apple and Redcurrant Pie

Crust:

3/4 cup butter
 2 cup flour (whole wheat, white wheat, whole wheat pastry, or oat)
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. salt

Cut the butter into the flour until it's crumbly and there's no dry powder.

Dissolve the salt into the water, then stir it into the flour and butter. Stir to make a soft dough. It will be a lot like cookie dough.

Stick it in the fridge to chill until hardened.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Filling:

5 cups chopped apples
1/3 cup honey
1 Tbls. arrowroot powder, or flour, or corn starch
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 cup recurrant jelly*

Stir together the apples, arrowroot, allspice, and honey.

Roll out half the crust dough on a piece of waxed paper dusted with flour. Use flour as necessary on top and bottom to prevent sticking. Roll to 1/8".

Dust the pie tin with flour. Use the waxed paper to flip the crust over into the pie tin. Trim the edges and fill in any holes.

Spread the redcurrant jelly in the bottom of the crust, then put in the apple mixture.

Roll out the rest of the crust dough to make the top crust. Do whatever type of design you want.

Bake for 45-60 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the apples are soft.

*If you have fresh or dried redcurrants available to you, make a sort of jam by cooking them with water and honey, and mashing them up. I have to buy jelly, which is not ideal because it has bad ingredients in it, but it's the best I can do.

Alternatively, you could stir the plain redcurrants in with the apples instead of using jam.