This cherry tart is made with fresh seasonal summer cherries and the tart base made with wholemeal and flax flour.
It's the perfect afternoon tea dessert and it's very easy to make even for beginner bakers or home cooks.
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You might have a ton of cherries for pie in your garden and are wondering what else to do with it. Who in their healthy mind can eat a whole tree full of cherries?
Your granny or mommy probably cooked you some cherry pie in the past. That family cherry pie recipe is probably pretty good and if you fear change then stick with it. No problemo.
But if you want something a bit classier this almond and cherry frangipane tart is next-level delicious.
Ingredients
For the crust of this cherry tart, we use a mix of flours, Flax and cocoa powder.
This mix is key to ensuring the crust stays crisp for days and does not get soaked while at the same time beautifully "short" and crumbly.
- Cherries - The star of the show. Fresh as you can get and Sweet as Lillies in May.
- Almond meal/flour - Just ground up almonds. Most stores stock this. Use peeled or unpeeled. No difference.
- Flour(optional) - Plain flour. Not traditionally used in frangipane but, I find it helps stabilise the filling a bit. For gluten-free just swap out for gluten-free flour.
- Sugar - Caster sugar or powdered sugar. Whichever you have.
- Lemon zest - Freshly zested. You could also try orange zest.
- Brandy(optional) - Use whatever you have or even a bit of cherry brandy would make sense.
Useful equipment for this recipe
How to make the base/crust
The key to making great shortcrust sweet or savoury pastry is to work quickly and keep your ingredients cold. That's it. No magic ingredients or tricks.
- Sieve all the dry ingredients.
- Mix in cold butter until you have a sandy texture.
- Add in a beaten egg and quickly bring the mix together in a dough working quick but gently.
- Once a dough ball has formed, flatten out slightly as this would make the rolling out easier later. Cover and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough into a large round that would cover a 28cm/11-inch tart tin. The thickness is about 3mm. Don't stress too much though just get it in the form and press it around a bit making sure there are no thin or broken parts. I always roll out a thin coil of dough and press it into the bottom rim of the baking form. This reinforces the part where the base meets the walls of the crust.
- Carefully press the rolled out dough into the baking form and trim the overhanging edges.
- Poke some holes in the base of the dough with a fork.
- Place a parchment paper filled with raw beans or rice into the centre. This is called blind baking. It's to ensure the crust is fully cooked and crispy before the filling gets cooked.
- Heat the oven to 160°C or 320°F. At this point place your tin with raw dough into the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes. Always cook pastry when well chilled. This ensures the butter does not leak out before the pastry cooks. If this happens the gluten in the flour pulls together and you end up with an oily chewy crust.
- Blind bake with the beans for 20 minutes at 160°C or 320°F. Remove the beans, brush the crust with a bit of egg white. Bake a further 5 minutes open without the beans at 140°C or 284°F.
- Remove the baked crust and let it fully chill down keeping it in its tin. We will bake the cherry tart in the tin so follow this step carefully.
When cooked it looks like this.
Moving on...
Frangipane filling
You could make this in a mixer but, it works perfectly well without. Just make sure your butter is room at temperature.
- Cream the butter and sugar together making sure it's homogenous and evenly mixed.
- Sift the dry ingredients and mix into the butter mix. Again, making sure it's well mixed.
- Beat the eggs, brandy and zest together. Add to the almond mix in increments mixing through well and making sure it's evenly mixed.
- When nice and smooth, cover and place into the fridge for 30 minutes while you remove the pips from the cherries.
- Inspect cherries for severe blemishes and spoilage. Discard what you don't like. Remove the stalks and pips/stones, keeping the cherries as intact as possible.
Baking the tart
- Heat the oven to 180°C or 365°F.
- Put the frangipane filling into the tart shell. Making sure it's evenly distributed.
- Press the cherries into the frangipane. Also, making sure they are evenly placed but random. If some of the cherry tops get covered just scrape off the frangipane with the back of a knife.
- Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown and cooked in the centre.
- The internal temperature of the cherry tart should read above 90°C or 194°F.
- When cooked, remove from the oven and cool down in the tin once more. Do not try and lift it out. Otherwise, tears will follow)
- When cool. Place a plate on top and quickly flip upside down. Now, your tart faces the wrong way. Place another plate on top and flip again.
The last step is to brush the top with a bit of melted cherry jam or honey to give it that lovely shine. This step is optional and you can easily skip it.
For that professional finish though. Brush that bad boy.
Voila! And bon appetit!
Now you know why this cherry tart is the best.
Tips for sucess
- Make sure the pastry is fully baked before adding the frangipane. Depending on your oven you might need to turn the temperature down slightly to avoid getting too dark.
- When making the frangipane make sure that all the ingredients are at room temperature to avoid it splitting.
- If you're using frozen or tinned cherries squeeze out the juice to avoid it bleeding into the frangipane or making the pastry soggy.
- Make sure to fully bake the filling. Check this by inserting a toothpick so it comes out clean or using a temperature probe. The internal temperature should read above 90°C or 194°F.
- Brush the baked tart with jam or honey as soon as it comes out of the oven for a nice shine.
How to make it gluten-free
You could easily make this recipe gluten-free by replacing the regular flour with gluten free flour or buckwheat flour.
When using buckwheat flour, make sure to use flaxseed or chia as well. this ensures your dough comes together. Otherwise, it will be extremely crumbly and will fall apart.
Frequently asked questions
The best is fresh and in season. It tastes better. Alternatively tinned or frozen can also work. Make sure you get rid of all the excess liquid though. Otherwise, tears will follow.
Blind bake your crust first. It's the only way to keep it from getting soggy.
Yes you can but it won't stay as crispy as short crust. Make sure to bling bake it the same way as for short pastry.
Follow the recipe properly and make sure the internal temperature reaches above 90°C or 194°F.
Once cooled, cover and keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. Can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Serving suggestions
Vanilla Ice cream, whipped cream or clotted cream with some more fresh cherries is the way to go if you are going to add anything.
It keeps well so can be packed for picnics, lunchboxes and a day to the beach.
Variations
- Use any other fruit if you wish when it's at the hight or towards the end of the season. Think apricots, figs, pears, apples, and blueberries. They all make a great frangipane tart. Follow the same steps as for this cherry tart.
- You could use another nut meal. Walnut meal goes great with pears and figs while hazelnut goes well with apples and blueberries good with pistachio. When using pistachio meal blackberries are also great.
- The pastry crust can also be modified by using other combinations of flours and seed meals. You could substitute the wholemeal flour for rye flour, or ancient grain flours. The flax meal can be substituted for buckwheat flour or ground chia seeds.
- You could also make a Bakewell tart by spreading a thin layer of your jam of choice onto the base before adding the frangipane and fruit before baking as usual.
More baking recipes
If you like sweet baking then try the following recipes:
Layered Russian honey cake(Medovik) - The recipe I make a living from in Russia.
Moist carrot and walnut cake - The best carrot cake in the world. I've cooked this for the Queen of England by the way.
Bread and savoury biscuits?
Sourdough rye bread - Perfect for beginners and seasoned bakers alike.
Flaxseed sourdough - The easiest sourdough to handle with a beautiful crumb and crispy crust
Borodisnsky rye bread - My favourite bread of all time.
Parmesan shortbread biscuits - Responsible for many successful sundowner snack and drinks parties.
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Recipe
Cherry Tart
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 90 g (⅖ cups) butter
- 50 g (1 ) egg
- 120 g (1 cups) all purpose flour
- 50 g (3/7 cups) wholemeal flour
- 30 g (⅕ cups) flax meal
- 10 g (2 tbsp) cocoa powder
- 80 g (⅔ cups) powdered sugar
- 2 g (⅓ tsp) salt
For the filling
- 600 g (4 ⅓ cups) stoned cherries - from 800g cherries
- 125 g (1 ⅛ cups) almond flour
- 125 g (⅝ cups) sugar
- 125 g (½ cups) butter
- 100 g (2 ) egg
- 35 g (2/7 cups) all purpose flour
- 5 g (1 tbsp) lemon zest
- 15 g (1 tbsp) brandy
- 2 g (⅓ tsp) salt
Instructions
For the pastry base
- Sieve all the dry ingredients.
- Mix in cold butter until you have a sandy texture.
- Add in a beaten egg and quickly bring the mix together in a dough working quick but gently.
- Once a dough ball has formed, flatten out slightly as this would make the rolling out easier later. Cover and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough into a large round that would cover a 28cm/11 inch tart tin. The thickness is about 3mm. Don't stress too much though just get it in the form and press it around a bit making sure there are no thin or broken parts. I always roll out a thin coil of dough and press it into the bottom rim of the baking form. This reinforces the part where the base meets the walls of the crust.
- Carefully press the rolled out dough into the baking form and trim of the overhanging edges.
- Poke some holes in the base of the dough with a fork.
- Place a parchment paper filled with raw beans or rice into the centre. This is called blind baking. It's to ensure the crust is fully cooked and crispy before the filling gets cooked.
- Heat the oven to 160°C or 320°F. At this point place your tin with raw dough into the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes. Always cook pastry when well chilled. This ensures the butter does not leak out before the pastry cooks. If this happens the gluten in the flour pulls together and you end up with an oily chewy crust.
- Blind bake with the beans for 20 minutes at 160°C or 330°F. Remove the beans, brush the crust with a bit of egg white. Bake a further 5 minutes open without the beans at 140°C or 284°F.
- Remove the baked crust and let it fully chill down keeping it in its tin. We will bake the cherry tart in the tin so follow this step carefully.
For the filling
- Cream the butter and sugar together making sure it's homogenous and evenly mixed.
- Sift the dry ingredients and mix into the butter mix. Again, making sure it's well mixed.
- Beat the eggs, brandy and zest together. Add to the almond mix in increments mixing through well and making sure it's evenly mixed.
- When nice and smooth, cover and place into the fridge for 30 minutes while you remove the pips from the cherries.
- Inspect cherries for severe blemishes and spoilage. Discard what you don't like. Remove the stalks and pips/stones, keeping the cherries as intact as possible.
Baking the tart
- Heat the oven to 180°C or 365°F.
- Put the frangipane filling into the tart shell. Making sure it's evenly distributed.
- Press the cherries into the frangipane. Also, making sure they are evenly placed but random. If some of the cherry tops get covered just scrape off the frangipane with the back of a knife.
- Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown and cooked in the centre.
- The internal temperature of the cherry tart should read above 90°C or 194°F.
- When cooked, remove from the oven and cool down in the tin once more. Do not try and lift it out. Otherwise, tears will follow)
- When cool. Place a plate on top and quickly flip upside down. Now, your tart faces the wrong way. Place another plate on top and flip again. Serve.
Notes
- Use an 11 inch or 28cm tart or quiche pan.
- Use any other fruit if you wish when it's at the height or towards the end of the season. Think apricots, figs, pears, apples, and blueberries. They all make a great frangipane tart. Follow the same steps as for this cherry tart.
- You could use another nut meal. Walnut meal goes great with pears and figs while hazelnut goes well with apples and blueberries good with pistachio. When using pistachio meal blackberries are also great.
- The pastry crust can also be modified by using other combinations of flours and seed meals. You could substitute the wholemeal flour for rye flour, or ancient grain flours. The flax meal can be substituted for buckwheat flour or ground chia seeds.
- You could also make a Bakewell tart by spreading a thin layer of your jam of choice onto the base before adding the frangipane and fruit before baking as usual.
- It will keep in the fridge stored airtight for 4 days. Can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
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