FOR THE PASTRY
250g Plain flour
175g Butter
90g Icing sugar
2 Egg yolks
Pinch Salt
FOR THE FRANGIPANE FILLING
50g Sugar
50g Ground almonds
250g Cherry curd
1 Punnet Cherries
1 Egg
2tbsp Jam
2tbsp Flaked almonds
First, make the pastry. To do this by hand, rub the fat into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, then add the sugar and salt. Give this a gently mix, making sure everything is evenly distributed. Finally mix in the egg yolks and gently bring everything together to form a dough. Kneed only briefly and lightly, just to bring everything together. Once you have a smooth dough wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least 30-40 minutes. Alternatively, place the sugar, butter and egg yolks in a food processor and blitz until everything is smooth and well combined. Then add the salt and flour, and pulse until a dough has formed. Remove from the processor and kneed. Again, only enough to bring to a dough. Wrap and chill as previously described.
Once rested, remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out until around the thickness of a pound coin. It can be thinner but only try this if you have a little experience, as failure can be frustrating! Using your fingertips and working quickly so that you do not heat the pastry up too much, shape into a 23cm/9inch tart mould making sure the pastry is pushed right into the corners. Any overhang can be left on and either trimmed after the tart case has been chilled, or blind baked.
Chill the case once more in the fridge. This helps stop the pastry shrinking by relaxing the gluten after it has been activated through rolling or shaping. Then line either with baking paper, or a double layer of clingfilm. Once lined, fill the case with baking beans (you can also use lentils, rice, dried pulses, even loose change!) Then bake in an oven preheated to 160°C for around 30 minutes. This essentially dries the pastry out and avoids the dreaded ‘soggy bottom’. Once the pastry has started to become golden, remove the baking beans and return to the oven for 5 minutes. At this stage the blind baked case could be left, clingfilmed for a day or two. If we were making a custard-based tart, you could glaze the tart shell with an egg wash and bake once more for a few minutes. This helps create a seal to stop the wet mixture fromsoftening the case.
To make this filling beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the egg with a spoonful of the ground almonds and beat again to incorporate. Do the same with the last egg and once all incorporated, fold through the remaining ground almonds and flour.
For the cherries, place these into a pan and cook down on a medium heat with some sugar to your taste, depending on their sweetness. Next, cover the base of the tart with the cherry curd to the depth that suits your palate. Place the frangipane into a piping bag and starting at the outer most point, pipe the frangipane until the curd is covered and the tart is almost full. This allows for a little rising in the frangipane. Scatter the cherries over the top and bake in an oven at 170°C until the filling is firm and bounces back when pressed.
Once this is achieved, remove from the oven and leave to cool to room temperature. Then remove from the tart case and slice and serve on its own, with cream or ice cream.
