Blueberry Crumble Tarts

The Fourth of July and I hosted — actually hosted, people in my house, food on my table, the Bermans and Harriet and Janet and David's family and Rebecca and Thomas. Twelve people. Not quite the pre-pandemic fourteen, but close enough. The house was loud. The grill was operating. The corn was fresh. The potato salad was my grandmother's recipe, with hard-boiled eggs and dill and the mustard dressing that bites. The flag was on the porch because Irving would have wanted the flag on the porch, and I keep the flag for Irving, who loved this country the way you love a person: with your eyes open, knowing the flaws, choosing the love anyway.

Marvin sat in the yard in a lawn chair, surrounded by grandchildren, and he was calm and present and smiling and I do not know if he understood the holiday or the gathering or the reason for the burgers and the flag, but he understood the children — he watched them with an attention that suggested something deeper than social pleasantry, something stored in the part of the brain that recognizes joy even when it can't name it. Hannah, four months old, sat in his lap for twenty minutes. He held her gently, instinctively, the holding of a baby being a skill that apparently predates and outlasts all other cognitive functions, and I watched him hold her and thought: this is the man I married. This is the man who held David this way, who held Rebecca this way. The holding is unchanged. The holder is changed. But the holding endures.

I made a flag cake — a rectangular sheet cake with white frosting and strawberries and blueberries arranged to look like the American flag, which is a corny, patriotic, deeply un-Ashkenazi thing to make and which I make every Fourth of July because the cake makes the children laugh and because patriotism, like brisket, is best when it's homemade. Ethan helped me place the blueberries. Sophie ate three strawberries before they made it onto the cake. Noah licked the frosting bowl. Democracy in action.

Sophie ate three strawberries before they reached the cake, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her — when the berries are that good, it takes real restraint not to eat them straight from the carton. If you find yourself with a bowl of blueberries that keep disappearing before you can arrange them into anything resembling a flag, these Blueberry Crumble Tarts are the move: all the celebration of summer fruit in individual portions that don’t require a steady hand or cooperative grandchildren. They’re the kind of thing you can make the morning of a gathering and feel quietly proud of, which, after a year of not hosting anyone, felt like exactly the right thing to bake.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons cold water
2 cups fresh blueberries
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Crumble Topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup rolled oats
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
Pinch of cinnamon

Instructions

Make the tart dough. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, work in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add cold water one tablespoon at a time, mixing until the dough just comes together. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Prepare the crumble. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup flour, granulated sugar, oats, and cinnamon. Cut in the cold butter until clumps form. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a standard 6-cup muffin tin or six 4-inch individual tart pans.
Form the tart shells. Divide the chilled dough into 6 equal portions. Press each portion evenly into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared muffin cups or tart pans, forming a thin, even shell.
Make the blueberry filling. In a bowl, toss together the blueberries, granulated sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, and lemon juice until evenly coated.
Fill and top. Spoon the blueberry filling evenly into the tart shells. Sprinkle the crumble topping generously over each tart.
Bake. Bake for 28—32 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling at the edges. If the tops brown too quickly, tent loosely with foil during the last 10 minutes.
Cool and serve. Let the tarts cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before removing. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Blueberry Crumble Tarts — The Berries That Almost Didn’t Make It Onto the Cake