Two weeks ago Country Boy announced that the sour cherries in the orchard were ripe and needed picking. So after work one day, we traipsed down the hill and spent happy hour picking cherries. We picked about ten liters off our two little trees, which is more than double what we got last year. I started to get excited thinking about what I could make with them. Of course life just got too busy with all the end of year activities, so we took the stems off and whacked them into the freezer until we could deal with them.
On Saturday, I breathed a sigh of relief as the holidays finally arrived, and I turned my attention to what to make with the cherries. To me their colour just screams out Christmas, so I whipped up this sweet, yet sour tart to take to our church Christmas get together on Saturday night.
The tart filling has a light creamy texture, and could easily by made a day ahead, while the cherry topping is sour and juicy and only needs to be spread on top just before serving.
- 1⅔ c plain flour
- ⅓ c cocoa
- ⅓ c icing sugar
- 200g butter
- 1 egg yolk
- 2-3 t water (depending on weather
- 600ml cream
- 200g white choc
- 200g philadelphia
- 2T caster sugar
- 1t vanilla bean extract
- 3t gelatine
- ¼ c boiling water
- 2½ c sour cherries - stoned - keep the juice
- 250ml of sour cherry juice - use cranberry juice if you don't have enough.
- ½c sugar
- 1T cornflour
- Place the flour, cocoa, and icing sugar in a food processor.
- Add in the butter and process until mixed through.
- Add in the egg yolk with the blade running. The dough should come together in a lump. You may need to add a little cold water to it.
- Wrap the pastry in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
- Roll the pastry until ½ cm thick, and line a 24cm flan tin.
- Bake at 180*c for 20 min or until crisp.
- Allow to cool before filling.
- Place the chocolate and cream into a microwave proof jug and microwave for 40 second. Stir the mixture and repeat until the chocolate has melted.
- Allow to cool.
- Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water.
- Stir the gelatin into the melted chocolate and cream.
- Beat the Philadelphia and vanilla together until light and fluffy.
- When the chocolate and cream has cool, beat with the cream cheese until light and fluffy.
- Pour into the cooled pastry shell and refrigerate for a couple of hours to allow the filling to set before placing the cherry compote on top.
- Blend the sugar, cornflour and juice together in a saucepan, whisking to avoid lumps.
- Bring to the boil in the stove, continuing to whisk as you do.
- Add the stoned cherries to the thickened mixture.
- Cook for one minute and remove from the heat.
- Allow to cool.
- Spoon on to the top of the tart.
This recipe can be made the day before. Just keep the cherry compote separate until just before serving.
I still have several more bags of cherries in the freezer. Some I plan to make into sour cherry preserve, but you can bet that I will be whipping up this one again before too long.
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