Making an elegant tart for the holidays can be easy, if you set your ingredients out beforehand. When you do that, it’s simply a matter of adding ingredients into your mixer. Your dough is ready in a matter of minutes, and your tart will be baking before you know it.

This is a variation of an Italian dessert called fregolotta. (For recipe, click here.) I first came across the recipe in one of pastry chef Cindy Mushet’s cookbooks, but I’ve tinkered with it so much that it has become my own. For example, I found the original recipe a little stingy on fruit. A friend who has copied the recipe found my version equally stingy, so feel free to add as much or as little as you would like.

The first step is to make sure your butter and your jam or jelly are both at room temperature before you start. This makes the process of assembling everything so much easier.

First, cream your butter for about 1 minute at a medium speed, then add the oil and whip for another minute. This allows air into the butter and it will make your tart lighter. Slowly add the sugar and salt. I like to use a coarse salt because the combined flavor of salt, butter and fruit when you bite into it is spectacular.

Now is the time to add the almond extract. If you are allergic to nuts or just don’t like the flavor or texture, you can substitute vanilla at this point and omit the almond slivers from the topping

Reduce the speed to its lowest level before adding the flour. This is a must to prevent flour from spraying back at you.

Once the flour has been incorporated and your dough has formed, remove 3/4 of a cup of dough and press it onto a plate. (If your dough has crumbled, which can happen because of the butter and the humidity of the day, just leave it in crumbles.) Place this in the freezer, so it’s good and cold when you place the tart in the oven.

Then press the dough in your tart pan or 9-inch baking pan (can be square or round). Cover with whatever amount of jam you wish (room temperature jam is easier to spread and won’t tear your dough). To me, the tart is about the flavor of butter, though who can resist fig, raspberry or apricot preserves in the mix? You aren’t limited in your choice of what to use. It could be cherry, a perfect partner with almond, or marmalade

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Crumble the dough from the freezer on top. Sprinkle on your almonds and bake. The baking process depends on the type of oven you are using. An electric oven will usually bake the tart in half the time of a gas oven. You’ll know it’s done when the dough takes on a more golden glow

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You can easily double this recipe. I’ve tried to triple it before, because I make about 100 of these as presents each year in various sizes, but my Kitchen Aid bowl is not big enough to hold all of the ingredients and mix them without flour flying everywhere.

If you want to add a snowy touch, sprinkle powdered sugar on top, but only before serving. The moisture of the tart will absorb much of the powdered sugar after awhile. This tart keeps unrefrigerated for several days.

(Photos: John Griffin & Nicholas Mistry)

A reader recently asked how to make jam with figs. The answer is easier than you might think.

Fig Jam

1 cup fresh figs
2/3 cup sugar
4 slices lemon

Mash figs thoroughly. Mix figs with sugar, let stand for 20 minutes to form a syrup. Slice lemon very thin, do not peel, just wash and slice across rind. Add lemon slices, let stand for 20 minutes longer to allow flavors to marry.

Bring to a boil, and boil until figs are as soft as you want them. Put into sterilized 1/2-pint jars, top with paraffin, and seal jars. If you plan on eating the jam within a couple of weeks, you don’t have to seal the jars.

Makes 2 jars.

Adapted from CDKitchen.com.

Last Saturday morning, I took a cruise up I-10 to Boerne Stage Road and dropped by the farmers market at the Leon Springs Baptist Church parking lot. On a sunny morning it was easy to park and not yet steamy hot, so I could enjoy making the rounds of vendors.

Even at a distance, the plants and flowers displayed were a welcome eyeful of color in our currently dusty landscape. There were two tents with beautiful, healthy looking herbs, Hibiscus, and an intriguing flowering plant named a Rangoon Creeper.

I met Mario Obledo as I photographed some of the produce. He is the vice president of the Hill Country Farmers Market Association, the organization that promotes this market and three other markets in the area (see below for details). I learned that the Leon Springs market is year-round, 2 1/2 years into its growth and development, still with room for new additions and new ideas.

Every day you hear about “going green,” and at The Green Brownie company they are doing green in brownies! No, this isn’t a St. Patrick’s Day gimmick; these are delicious treats made with all-organic ingredients so you can feel good about indulging. Owner Tracy Carlson told me that they even used packaging that is eco-friendly. If you are in a more playful mood, the stand also has Brownies-on-a-stick (they are cute) as well as gluten-free brownies.

But the vision that most of us hold about a farmers market includes lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. As it should be, there were three well-stocked displays of bright, fresh, produce. I saw some good looking squash that were named Sunburst and White Scalloped, very much like a pattypan squash, at Bob Mishler’s Uncertain Farms. Lots of people were buying peaches and tomatoes, cucumbers and okra, potatoes and green beans, plums, bell peppers, jam, wow!

But there were baked breads, pecans (even pecan oils at Circle H Orchards), and some super yummy granola at Cowgirl Granola. Heather Hunter, the Head Cowgirl, has been making her toasty, oaty, nutty, tasty, amazing granola for about 8 years. She is out at Leon Springs every week, as well as the other three markets in the association. You can also contact her at cowgirlenterprises@gmail.com.

There is usually a grass-fed beef dealer, but he was out-of-town that morning. He’s expected back soon; meanwhile, there are other vendors with free-range eggs and various goodies to keep you busy until then.

I have been to a few farmers markets in our area and in other states — and even other countries. Leon Springs is not the biggest, but it has a good variety, easy to get service, and just a friendly, can-do, attitude. Go see for yourself and try something new!

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Saturdays, 8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Leon Springs Baptist Church
24133 Boerne Stage Road (behind the H-E-B)

The other markets affiliated are:

• Boerne, Kendall County Fairgrounds, 1307 River Road, Boerne TX  Wednesdays 2-6 p.m., now through Nov. 18
• Bulverde-Spring Branch, The Branches Church, 4594 Highway 281 North, Bulverde, TX  Saturdays, 2:30-5:30 p.m., year-round.
• Helotes-Grey Forest, Helotes Hills United Methodist Church, 13222 Bandera Road, Helotes, TX  2nd & 4th Fridays, 3-6 p.m., now through Nov. 13