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When local berries are in season, it’s time to take advantage and use them in any way you can. Sure, we can get raspberries all year long, but their flavor is about a tenth as sweet and vivid as that of a ripe local berry.

For a perfect raspberry tart, make a sweet, tender crust and add a little custard cream to help adhere the berries, and you’re in business. You can substitute any berries you like, or a combination, but with raspberries this tart looks and tastes utterly luxurious.

One note of caution about the crust: Don’t over-bake the crust waiting for it to turn a darker golden color. When the crust is just baked through it is tender and cookie-like, but when it’s over baked it will turn hard.

Often, this type of tart has a glaze made from reduced strained preserves painted on the fruit. Unless you use a starch and pectin-based glaze that bakeries use, your glaze will draw water from the berries and make the tart a watery mess, which is why it’s recommended to skip the glaze and just cover the berries with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar.

Use a 9- or 10-inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom. This recipe makes tart, about 8 servings.

OLD FASHIONED

RASPBERRY TART

Cookie Dough Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

1 large egg

Pastry Cream:

3/4 cup whole milk

1/4 cup heavy cream or half-and-half

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Finishing:

Three 1/2-pint baskets fresh raspberries, picked over, but not washed

Confectioners’ sugar for sprinkling

1. For the dough, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse several times to mix. Add the butter and pulse to mix in the butter completely. Add the egg and pulse until the dough forms a ball. Invert the dough to a floured work surface and carefully remove the blade. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill up to 2 days before preparing the tart.

2. When you’re ready to bake the tart crust, unwrap the dough and place it on a floured work surface. Knead it lightly to soften it slightly, then form it into a disk. Flour the dough and roll it to an 11- to 12-inch disk. Fold the dough in half and transfer it to the pan, lining up the fold with the diameter of the pan. Unfold the dough into the pan and press it well into the bottom and sides. Sever the excess dough at the rim of the pan with a bench scraper or the back of a paring knife. Refrigerate the tart crust until you are ready to bake it.

3. For the custard filling, combine the milk, cream and half the sugar in a small non-reactive saucepan. Bring to a boil over low heat. Combine the remaining sugar and the flour in a small mixing bowl and whisk well to mix. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. When the milk mixture boils, whisk about a third of it into the egg mixture. Return the remaining milk to a boil over low heat and whisk in the egg mixture in a stream, whisking constantly until the pastry cream thickens and comes to a boil — large bubbles will burst slowly on the surface. Cook, whisking constantly, for about 20 seconds. Off heat, whisk in the vanilla and butter. Scrape the pastry cream into a glass or stainless steel bowl and press plastic wrap directly against the surface. Refrigerate the pastry cream until it is time to assemble the tart.

4. To bake the tart shell, set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Remove the unbaked tart crust from the refrigerator and pierce it all over at half-inch intervals with the tines of a fork. Bake the crust for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until it is a very light golden color. If you bake the crust too long it will be very hard.

5. Cool the baked crust on a rack.

6. When you are ready to assemble the tart, transfer the tart crust to a platter and spread the chilled pastry cream on the bottom of the crust, using a small metal offset spatula. Arrange the raspberries on the pastry cream (I just pile them on every which way, rather than making straight rows). Right before serving, dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Nick Malgieri is the award-winning author of “Perfect Cakes,” HarperCollins, 2002; “A Baker’s Tour,” HarperCollins, 2005; and “Perfect Light Desserts” Morrow, 2006.