This wild berry tart has a soft and slightly crispy crust, with a filling of varied juicy fruits and a velvety cream.

I love to make (and eat) tart, and this tart had been waiting on my to-do list for years. I saw it on an old daily cooking show that I loved to watch by German cook Tim Mälzer and had written it down in a recipe notebook I have now found.

Wild berries are more of the summer season when we see plenty (and nationally grown) for sale at good prices, but I think that using the frozen ones (more affordable) you can make this tart recipe any time of the year.

The base of this tart is not the classic shortcrust pastry; it's a dough with a texture between cake and cookie because in addition to being made with flour, baking powder, oil, and sugar, it also contains quark cheese and milk, and optionally a little lemon zest.

The filling, on the other hand, is composed of a mix of frozen berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, blueberries), along with sugar, eggs, creme fraîche, and cornstarch.

Of course, you can use a smaller variety of fruits in this tart, or even reduce it to just one of the fruits you may have at hand, or pleasing to your taste.

If the fruits are fresh and not frozen, the amount of cornstarch should be halved, as its presence counteracts the amount of juice, thus reducing the moisture release to the filling.

It is quite easy nowadays to find both quark cheese and creme fraîche for sale, which was not the case when I first saw this recipe. Quark cheese should be thick in texture (somewhere between the texture of Greek yogurt and ricotta cheese) because there are brands where quark looks more like (almost) liquid yogurt, so the crust texture of this wild berry tart won't be the same.

In its original version, milk was still added to the filling, but it made creamier and moister and I thought the pie would have already enough moisture from the juices released by the fruits, which frozen are in greater quantity.

Both cream and creme fraîche are dairy products with similar fat content - about 30%.

Often in supermarkets, creme fraîche is referred to as "fresh cream" which can lead to the mistake of many. Fresh cream is pasteurized milk cream to which additives are not added, and as such have a more limited shelf life.

The creme fraîche is distinguished from cream (whether or not with additives) because it has in its formation natural fermentation agents (like in yogurts) which give it a thicker texture and a slight acidity taste.

To prepare the dough that will serve as the base for this tart, simply mix the dry ingredients and then add the liquid ones.

This dough doesn't have a texture as dry as that of common tart dough, but slightly sticky one. You may try to roll it with the rolling pin, but always between 2 sheets of parchment paper, sprinkled with a little flour. I prefer to form a dough disc about the size of the tart and then with my fingers I try to model it to fill the sides of the form.

For the filling, mix all ingredients (except berries and cornstarch) until a smooth cream is obtained.

If you use (like me) frozen fruits, you should remove them from the freezer while preparing the filling so that they thaw slightly, which will make the cornstarch adhere better. I refer in the recipe list "1 or 2 tablespoons cornstarch" because if you use fresh fruits, just add 1 tablespoon instead of 2 tablespoons in case you use frozen fruits.

After the dough is spread in the tart, the fruits are distributed and then the creamy filling is slowly poured over them.

This wild berry tart has 2 cooking phases: the first, at a higher temperature mainly to set the base crust; and a second phase of baking at a lower temperature so that the filling is consistently baked.

Adapted from "Beerenschecke"

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