Blackberry tart with vanilla ice cream

Nothing says summer to me like berries. We were having family friends over for the 4th and they were bringing ingredients for homemade ice cream. Naturally, I began dreaming of berry tarts, but all the recipes I found had some sort of pastry cream layer. Pastry cream + ice cream just did not sound good to me. So I winged it.

{simple berry tart + heirloom napkin}

Simple berry tart
One ten inch tart crust, unbaked, frozen (Deb's recipe is my go to)
2 bags of frozen blackberries (10 oz. each, I think)
1/4 cup sugar (approximately)
1 tablespoon cornstarch

*Toss the blackberries with the sugar and cornstarch. Pile in the frozen crust. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 and continue baking for about 45 minutes, until the crust is browned and the berries are bubbly. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before eating, to give it a chance to firm up.

Warning - this bubbles over like crazy. Make sure you have a baking sheet to catch the juice or you'll spend the next day scrubbing your oven.

This tart is genuinely tart, because the sugar content is pretty low. It pairs perfectly with homemade ice cream, which is intensely creamy but only mildly sweet.

Simple vanilla ice cream (makes about 6 servings)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup half and half
1 tsp vanilla

*Whisk together the whipping cream and sugar until dissolved, about 2 minutes. Stir in the half and half and the vanilla extract. Freeze according to the instructions on your ice cream maker.

The ice cream isn't pictured because it is too good. I couldn't just stand around photographing it and letting it melt into oblivion. Home made ice cream melts very quickly because it doesn't have any of those weird stabilizers. You'll just have to imagine it.