Cherry Tart

I was looking for a special treat to make as a birthday cake for a friend and came across this delicious Cherry Tart recipe.

This does have butter in it. Not sure if you can substitute margarine in the pastry but you may be able to do it with the filling. Give it a try and let me know how you go.

If I was making this for myself I would have substituted all the butter for margarine but as I was making it for someone else I stuck close to the recipe.
 

Cherry Tart 

Pastry

1½ cups plain flour

100gm butter, cold chopped

2-3 tbsp iced water

Filling

100gm butter at room temperature

½ cup caster sugar

1 tspn vanilla paste

2 free range eggs

100gm almond meal

1/3 cup plain flour

500gm pitted cherries

icing sugar to dust

Method

Place flour in a large bowl. Add butter and use your fingers to rub in until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add water and mix with a knife until mixture starts to cling together. 

Gather dough in a ball. Turn out onto a sheet of baking paper and roll out to fit a 35cm x 12 cm loose bottom flan tin. Then remove from paper, but do not throw away,  and line tin with pastry. Chill for 20 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 180C or 160C for fan forced. Line pastry with sheet used above and fill with either baking beans, rice or beans. 

Bake for 15 minutes then remove beans or rice and cook for a further 15 minutes or until dry and lightly golden. Cool.

To make filling use electric beaters to beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in vanilla paste. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Fold in almond meal and flour. Spread into pastry case. Arrange cherries over the filling pressing in slightly. 

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool, dust with icing sugar and cut into slices. Serve with cream if desired. 

Notes:


1. If you can buy a cherry pitter do so! Otherwise you will have to hand pit 45 cherries. I did it with a toothpick and never again!

2.  I had a bit of trouble with it not baking in the centre and found that I had to put foil over the dish and put it on a lower shelf for an additional 20 minutes until it cooked through. Keep the oven low and keep your eye on it so it doesn't burn.