DB Autumnberry Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Ever in search of a better pie crust I was trilled to try out this month's recipe for pasta frolla, Italy's contribution to the pastry dough world.  I made our host's variation that adds in coconut flour and whole wheat pastry flour to supplement the all-purpose flour.  For the fat I used a combination of two thirds solid extra virgin coconut oil with one third Earth Balance margarine.  I filled my tart with the spiced autumnberry jam I made earlier in the month.  Then because Alex and I nibbled too much on the scraps, which were very tasty, I added some pecans on top for crunch and decoration.  It was a simple but tasty tart that I brought along to a Black Friday lunch with my parents.  Thanks for the challenge Simona!

Links:
-Go to our host Simona's blog briciole for her two pasta frolla recipes and her aunt's pastry cream recipe.
-Simona used the recipes for pasta frolla from the book Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, follow the link to read it on Google books.
-Come across any autumn olive berries (autumnberries) still left on bushes in the woods?  Make a batch of this jam.  The berries are even sweeter after the frost. 
-Visit the Daring Kitchen and see more crostatas made this month by browsing the Daring Baker Blogroll.

A slice of autumnberry crostata

 This Thanksgiving my son Alex and I made corn husk dolls using husks from our homegrown Bloody Butcher corn.  The corn itself is drying for our next project of grinding it into cornmeal.