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Irish Examiner

Michelle Darmody: How to bake the classic cherry tart — and the mistakes to avoid

There are a few weeks in the year when the price of cherries drops much lower than in other months. I tend to buy quite a lot of them at this time, simply for eating as they are, but also for use in baking. No matter how you choose to eat your cherries, it is worth seeking them out at the moment. They may even help you get a good night's sleep as they contain melatonin. We have native wild cherries that grow in Ireland, but unfortunately these do not reach a sweetness level to be eaten, but they can be used for making jams and sauces. The sour fruits are smaller and harder than the commercially grown cherries, and are dark red, almost black in colour. Commercially grown cherries that we buy in shops are grown for the bigger sweeter berries they provide. A fresh cherry should have a shiny, taut skin and no soft patches. The colour can vary with different varieties, but most sold in Ireland are a deep wine colour, and the good ones are filled with dark pink juice that drips down your chin when bitten into. My favourite place to buy Irish grown cherries is The Apple Farm in Tipperary. It is a lovely stop on the Cork to Dublin journey. Cherry Tart recipe by:Michelle Darmody A fresh cherry should have a shiny, taut skin and no soft patches. The colour can vary with different varieties, but most sold in Ireland are a deep wine colour. Servings 10 Preparation Time  35 mins Cooking Time  42 mins Total Time  1 hours 17 mins Course  Baking Ingredients for the pastry: 225g plain flour, sieved 140g cold butter, cubed 60g golden caster sugar 1 egg, lightly beaten and an extra egg yolk for the pastry glaze for the filling: 800g cherries, stoned and halved 150g cherry jam 1 tsp vanilla 2 tbsp corn flour 40g golden caster sugar Method Add the small cubes of butter to the flour and rub them in until it looks like rough breadcrumbs. Stir the sugar into the egg to dissolve it slightly and add this to the flour mixture until it comes together as a dough. Wrap the pastry dough in baking parchment and place into the fridge to firm up for about two hours. Preheat your oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Lightly grease and flour a 9-inch pie dish. I use one with fluted sides, the same one I use when making a quiche. Set the tin aside in a cool or cold place while you roll your pastry. Roll the pastry into a disc a few centimetres larger than your tart tin and gently nudge it into the prepared dish. Trim the edges. Keep any excess pastry to make the lattice on top. Prick the pastry base all over with a fork. Put a disc of parchment on top of the pastry and fill it with baking beans. Bake the tart case blind for 10 minutes until the edges are just starting to colour very slightly. Remove from the oven and remove the beans. Brush the pastry with some of the egg yolk and place it back into the oven for 2 more minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Toss the stoned cherries with the jam, vanilla, corn flour and sugar until everything is combined. Set aside. Reroll the bits of pastry and make strips for a lattice. Fill the case with the filling. Weave the pastry strips under and over in the opposite directions, creating a lattice pattern. Crimp all around the edge for a neat finish. Bake for in the centre of your oven for about 30 minutes until the pastry is golden. Allow to cool for about an hour before eating. Bakers' Tips You can use the paper from the block of butter to rub the butter into the tart tin or tear a square of baking parchment and rub a teaspoon of butter onto all the crevices. After this add a teaspoon of flour into the greased tin and swirl it around so that all of the butter is covered in flour. You can line the base of your tin with parchment as well if you would prefer, to ensure it comes out easily. Make sure to rest your pastry in the fridge to ensure the crispiest result and do not stretch the pastry too much when placing it into the tin or it will shrink back when baking. If you need a bigger circle, roll the pastry a bit thinner. To preserve cherries and keep them fresh for as long as possible keep them as dry until ready to use. If the pastry edges of the tart are beginning to brown and the lattice is still pale you can cover the outside with some tin foil and place the tart back into the oven. If you cut the tart too soon, the cherry juice will flood out and make the pastry mushy. The corn flour allows the filling to set as it cools which prevents this. The tart will last about three days in the fridge. It does not freeze very well as it becomes mushy when defrosted. Three delicious variations Spiced cherry tart Warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg pair well with cherries. You can add a half a teaspoon of each to the cherries when you are adding the jam, sugar, corn flour and vanilla. Chocolate cherry tart Adding cocoa powder to the pastry will not only change the flavour it will also make it a lovely dark colour that looks good with the cherry filling. To make chocolate pastry, replace 25g of the flour with 25g of cocoa powder. Make sure to sieve the two together to ensure they are well combined. Cherry frangipane You can quite dramatically change the tart by adding a layer of frangipane on top of the blind baked case and dotting the cherries on top. Beat 110g of soft butter, 100g of golden caster sugar, 110g of ground almonds, 35g of plain flour, a ½ a teaspoon of baking powder with a ½ a teaspoon of almond extract and two eggs. Beat until combined. Pour this into your pastry case and place the cherries on top. Bake for about 40 minutes until the top is golden brown. Turn down the oven slightly towards the end if the pastry is beginning to brown too much.