Sour cherry frangipane tart
flavoured with bay, orange & vanilla
2 hrs
Showing Off
serves 12
About the recipe
Beautiful summer cherries – I absolutely love them! So juicy and refreshing, as well as being the perfect mixture of sweet and sour, and when they’re in season you should definitely get amongst it because they’re just SO good. For a delicious dessert worthy of any summer celebration, I’m turning these seasonal favourites into a dark sticky jam, and layering it inside sweet shortcrust pastry, topped with frangipane and more fresh cherries. Lovely!
Ingredients
SWEET SHORTCRUST PASTRY
250g unsalted butter (cold), plus extra for greasing
500g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
100g icing sugar
1 orange
2 large free-range eggs
CHERRY JAM
300g fresh cherries
150g golden caster sugar
2 bay leaves
FRANGIPANE
250g blanched almonds
250g golden caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
250g unsalted butter (cold)
1 vanilla pod
3 large free-range eggs
1 tablespoon plain flour
TOPPING
1 handful of cherries
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon golden caster sugar
crème fraîche or natural yoghurt, to serve
Method
Beautiful summer cherries – I absolutely love them! So juicy and refreshing, as well as being the perfect mixture of sweet and sour, and when they’re in season you should definitely get amongst it because they’re just SO good. For a delicious dessert worthy of any summer celebration, I’m turning these seasonal favourites into a dark sticky jam, and layering it inside sweet shortcrust pastry, topped with frangipane and more fresh cherries. Lovely!
For the pastry, place the butter, flour, icing sugar and a pinch of sea salt in a food processor, then finely grate in the orange zest (you’ll need the juice for the cherry jam). Pop the lid on and blitz, adding the eggs one at a time. Tip into a bowl, then pat and bring it together into a dough – try not to overwork it.
Halve the dough and place on pieces of greaseproof paper, then press and flatten slightly with your hand. Pop one in the fridge to relax, then wrap the other and freeze for another day.
For the jam, destone the cherries and place in a pan on a medium-high heat. Sprinkle over the sugar and squeeze in the juice from the zested orange. Use a potato masher to crush the cherries, add the bay leaves and leave to blip away until you have a shiny loose jam consistency, then turn off the heat.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and lightly grease a 25cm loose-bottomed tart tin.
Roll the pastry out on a flour-dusted surface until it’s about ¾cm-thick, then unroll it over the tart tin, easing the pastry into the tin as you go. Push it into the sides and trim away any overhanging pastry, then prick the base all over with a fork.
Wet and scrunch up a piece of greaseproof paper, lay it over the pastry and fill with uncooked rice or baking beans, then bake blind for 10 minutes.
For the frangipane, whiz the almonds in a food processor until really fine, then add the sugar, and cube up and add the butter. Split the vanilla pod in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds, then add to the processor, discarding the pod, then whiz again. Crack in the eggs, blitz, then add the flour and blitz one final time.
When the time’s up, remove the pastry case from the oven and carefully lift out the uncooked rice or baking beans (save for another time), then spoon the jam into the pastry case, discarding the bay leaves and spreading it out into an even layer. Spoon over the frangipane, then use a spatula to spread and push it out to the edges.
For the topping, destone the cherries and toss in a bowl with the balsamic vinegar and sugar, then scatter over the tart, pouring over any leftover juices.
Bake for 50 minutes, or until beautifully golden and set. Leave to cool before serving with dollops of crème fraîche or yoghurt.
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