by This Torta Sbriciolata with Blueberries and Almonds utilizes the late-summer wild blueberries available at the market. It’s a crumbly Italian-style tart bursting with sweet berries and crunchy almonds.
Although Italy is known for its rich culinary heritage in desserts, it’s all about simplicity and sophistication with mouthwatering results.
One such heavenly creation is la Torta Sbriciolata, which translates to crumb or crumble cake.
Whether it’s filled with fresh seasonal fruit, as the one you see today, or with Jam and Ricotta, this Italian-style crumble cake is always welcome at family gatherings.
Its rustic charm is guaranteed to steal your heart with the fruity, jammy-like filling and tender shortcrust pastry.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- A Perfect Blend of Fruity Goodness and Crumbly Texture: There is lots of blueberry jam-like goodness that beautifully compliments the crumbly and lemon-scented shortcrust pastry.
- Versatility: You can adapt the recipe using different types of seasonal berries or a combination of berries.
- Simple to Make: It might look impressive with its fluted sides and pretty crumbled top with dusted powdered sugar, but it’s surprisingly easy to make, which is perfect for novice bakers.
- Italy On A Plate: Simple and flavourful desserts are the Italian way of life and are meant to be savoured alongside a steaming hot beverage in the accompaniment of family and friends.
How to Make a Blueberry and Almond Crumble Cake
Let’s start by pre-measuring your ingredients for a more enjoyable baking experience. This saves time during the baking process and minimizes the risk of errors. As well as misjudging quantities.
- 1– The first photo above are the ingredients for the shortcrust pastry. These are simple ingredients you likely already have. Such as flour, sugar, eggs, butter, sliced almonds, lemon zest and baking powder. And a pinch of salt.
- 2– The second photo above shows all you’ll need for the blueberry filling…sweet and juicy wild blueberries with lemon juice and zest. And some flour as a thickener, which can also be substituted with cornstarch.
- 3- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
- 4- Place the sliced almonds and sugar in a food processor and pulse until you have a fine sandy mixture.
- 5- Add the sifted flour and butter to the nut mixture in the food processor.
- 6- Pulse together until you have a crumbly mixture.
- 7- Add in the egg, egg yolk, lemon zest and almond extract.
- 8- Pulse until you have large clumps of dough, then transfer the pastry dough onto a work surface and gather the pieces together in one cohesive dough.
Assembling Shortcrust Pastry
- 9- Crumble two-thirds of the dough into the greased pan.
- 10- Press the crumble over the bottom and sides of the baking pan. Hands work best here. Set aside. You can also use the bottom of a small glass to even out the shortcrust pastry.
- 11- Toss the blueberries with the lemon juice, zest and flour.
- 12- Transfer the blueberry mixture to the pastry-lined baking pan. Spread out evenly.
- 13- Crumble the remaining shortcrust pastry over the blueberries and sprinkle the top with the sliced almonds.
- 14- Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 35 minutes.
When ready, the crumble cake will have a deep golden brown colour.
To get that perfect slice, let it cool completely before serving. This way, the filling will set and, you’ll have nice clean cuts.
Finish off with a dusting of powdered sugar once cooled and ready to serve.
What to Serve with Sbriciolata
This Sbriciolata with fresh blueberries topped with almonds is one recipe you won’t want to miss baking. It has a rustic warmth, and it’s so easy to make.
All that’s needed before serving is a light dusting of powdered sugar. Serve alongside a steaming cup of tea, coffee or a Vin Santo…an Italian sweet wine.
Happy Baking!
More Recipes with Fresh Blueberries
Do you love baking with fresh blueberries? Here are other true-and-tried fresh blueberry recipes.
Italian Orange Cake with Fresh Blueberries is an Italian-style breakfast cake baked in a rose-shaped bundt pan for a beautifully sculpted look. It is sure to get some rave reviews at your next dinner party!
Lemon Scones with Fresh Blueberries is what weekends are made for. They’re drizzled with a lemon glaze for more tangy goodness. And there’s a burst of blueberry goodness in every bite!
Torta Sbriciolata with Blueberries and Almonds
Equipment
- 1 9 inch tart tin with removable bottom
Ingredients
For The Crumble
- 1 cup sliced almonds (98 grams)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (60 grams)
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour (200 grams)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter (110 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- lemon zest (from a small lemon)
For The Blueberry Filling
- 3 cups fresh blueberries (I used wild blueberries)
- lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
- 1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 ½ tablespoons flour (or corn starch)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar (74 grams)
- 1/3 cup sliced almonds, 31 grams (for the top of the crumble cake)
- Powdered sugar (to dust over the baked crumble cake)
Instructions
For The Crumble
- In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Combine the sliced almonds and sugar in a food processor and pulse together until very fine.
- Add the sifted flour mixture and the butter to the nut and sugar mixture in the food processor.
- Pulse together until you get a very crumbly mixture.
- Add in the egg and egg yolk, lemon zest and almond extract and pulse until large clumps form.
- Transfer the crumble onto a work surface and knead into a cohesive ball. You'll be needing approximately 2/3 of the pastry dough to line the tart tin and the remaining dough to crumble over the top.
- Grease and flour a 9 inch round tart tin with removable bottom.
- Line the prepared tart tin with 2/3 of the crumble, covering the bottom and sides of the tart tin. Your hands and fingers work best to shape the pastry dough in the baking tin. Keep the remaining dough for the top.
For The Blueberry Mixture
- In a medium sized bowl, toss together the blueberries with the lemon zest, lemon juice, flour and sugar.
- Transfer the blueberry mixture over the pastry-lined baking tin. Spreading them out evenly.
- Use the remaining pastry dough to crumble small and large pieces over the blueberries while covering the entire surface.
- Sprinkle the sliced almonds evenly over the crumble top.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F, for about 35 minutes.
- Transfer the blueberry crumble cake onto a cooling rack and let it cool off before releasing it from the baking tin.
- Dust the top with powdered sugar, slice and serve.
Have you ever made your tart using frozen wild or regular blueberries?
I’m sorry for not getting back to you sooner, Brenda. I just returned from a trip down south. Yes, I have made this tart with regular frozen berries and found they were not as sweet as the wild berries. The result was less of a jammy filling and could have used more sugar since they were not very sweet. The frozen berries don’t break down as easily as the fresh wild blueberries during baking time. I hope this helps.