I Tried This Single-Serve Version of Berry Crostata and It’s the One Recipe I Wish I’d Known About Sooner

I live in a small household of two people, and we both love sweet treats after dinner. Although our love for sweets runs deep, one of us is a type-1 diabetic so it can be tricky to make full desserts. As a result, I’m always on the search for desserts for one to two people; not only is it a way to manage carbs and sugar, but it’s also a great way to be able to use up the last bits of ingredients without being wasteful.

So when I came across Joy the Baker’s recipe for berry crostata for one, I got right in my kitchen to make it for my nightly post-dinner sweet. What I absolutely love about this recipe is that the ingredients are easy to scale up, plus it’s made with things you probably already have on hand: flour, sugar, butter, milk, and berries. It’s an easy recipe to customize based on whatever berries or fruit you have.

Get the recipe: Berry Crostata for One

First up, make the dough with flour, sugar, butter, salt, and buttermilk. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can easily make your own with milk and lemon juice or white vinegar. While this dough comes together pretty easily, it does require a tiny bit of finesse (in that you want to make sure your butter stays super cold). A trick I always use is to chill everything — both dry and wet ingredients — after I have measured them out. 

As the dough chills, you gather the filling ingredients and mix them together. Then, roll out the dough before adding the filling. Fold up the edges and brush with additional buttermilk.  Bake it, let it cool a little, and serve with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

This recipe was perfect. I have no bad notes at all. It’s a micro-bake fit for a queen. Baked hot fruit desserts with a buttery crust (served a la mode) will always be my favorite, and I can see myself making this often enough that it becomes second nature.

I did, however, make a few of minor changes. To start, Joy calls for brushing the crust with buttermilk. I prefer a more caramelized crust so I used an egg wash instead. I also added a bit more berries because I wanted to just use up the last couple of strawberries that I had kicking around the fridge. It totaled to about 2/3 cup of berries. 

This dessert is even easy enough to make a few ahead of time and freeze before they are baked to just have on hand for whenever you want. And that, my friends, is the move! I was able to split this with my housemate and we were both pretty satisfied. So this could actually be for two. But I wouldn’t blame you if you kept it all for yourself.

1. Add in whatever fruit you like. Peaches, plums, apricots, figs — the hot fruit endeavors are truly endless.
2. Spice up your life. I love strawberries and cardamom together. Making this an all-strawberry dessert with a hint of cardamom will be next for me. 
3. Don’t waste that lemon zest. This recipe calls for a bit of lemon juice, but I suggest adding a bit of zest from the lemon into the dough, too. It’ll give it a zing you won’t regret.