I did it!!! I finally duplicated my favorite tart. I am so excited. I no longer have to wait years in between each indulgence! You see, this Cherry Almond Tart along with my other favorite, the Lemon Tart, are only sold in one store in Switzerland. Therefore, we either have to go there to get them ourselves or put up with embrace a particular international house guest in order to get some. Thus, it was imperative that I learn how to make it on my own :).
And I did!!! You have no idea how many times I tried to make it. For some reason, I always thought that the base flavor was Amaretto. Just goes to show how undefined my palate is! Actually now that I think about it, it is because my husband always called it an amaretto tart! After examining the box that my husband brought home a few weeks ago after his trip home, I realized that it was almond. DUH!!! I had to momentarily give myself a face palm. Update- one very sweet reader just kindly emailed me to tell me that amaretto is almond! Thank goodness because I was really questioning my taste buds! This is why I blog! I love my readers!
I am so excited that we can now enjoy this tart all year long! Make it now to use up the rest of your summer cherries or make it later using frozen cherries. This tart will definitely make an appearance on my Thanksgiving dessert table! Use this recipe here for homemade almond paste which is cheaper and takes less than 5 minutes to make!
- 1 cup cold Plugra European Style butter , cubed
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon cream
- 2 ½ cups fresh pitted cherries or frozen cherries (thawed)
- 1 tablespoon Plugra European Style butter
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon water
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract or paste
- 2 cups Almond Paste
- Powdered sugar for garnish
-
In a food processor pulse flour, powdered sugar and flour until combined.
-
Add butter, one cube at a time, until combined. Add cream and pulse until the dough forms a ball in the food processor.
-
Refrigerate dough for one hour.
-
On a floured surface roll out dough into your desired pie or tart pan.
-
Par bake the crust at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.
-
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before adding filling.
-
In a small sauce pan heat cherries, butter, and vanilla. Cook on medium heat until the cherries release their juices and begin to simmer (about 10 minutes).
-
At this point you can blend the cherries for a smooth filling and return the puree to the pan, or you can leave it chunky and continue to cook on medium low.
-
In a tiny dish, combine the water and cornstarch to create a paste.
-
Add the cornstarch paste to the cherry mixture and stir until it has thickened up enough to coat the back of the spoon.
-
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
-
While the cherries are cooling, make your almond paste balls.
-
Roll small ½ inch balls to top the tart.
-
After cherry filling has cooled for about 10 minutes, pour filling into tart shell.
-
Top cherry filling with almond paste balls.
-
Bake for an additional 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
-
Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.
Dina
that looks yummy!
theseasidebaker
Thanks Dina!
JC
Looks great! Did you use sweet or tart cherries?
theseasidebaker
Thanks! I used Bing Cherries which are sweet I believe.
pattyabr
Love the topping in the picture. I love almond paste!
Congrats!
Sarah @ Miss Candiquik
Beautiful!!! I loveee tarts! Can't wait to make this one.
Andi
I have lots of leftover almond paste from making my wedding cakes, and this looks like a good option to use some of it up.
I'll look for European-style butter, but if I want to make this without an extra shopping trip, should I use unsalted or salted butter? (Or perhaps use unsalted + a few pinches salt?)
Thanks!
Lorraine
Looks beautiful!! I have a question. can I use the almond paste in tubes found in the supermarket and if so, do two tubes equal the 2 cups? thank you!
Jama
What size tart pan did you use - this is going to be at my Thanksgiving!
theseasidebaker
Sorry for the late reply, but I used the 9 in tart pan. Enjoy!!!
Jeanetta Hoekstra
Hi! I just need confirmation. Is it ''1 and a 1/2 cup'' of almond flour and ''1 and a 1/2 cup'' of powered sugar or only ''one half cup'' of each. Huge difference. It's a bit confusing to me now, because I saw another comment of you in a reply to someone and there you mentioned something about ''one half cup''. May I use castor sugar? I suppose this is the same as powered sugar. Thanks for your recipe!
Vicky Barton
So, I made your tart yesterday. The amount of butter for the crust had me worried but I did it anyway. I used a 9" french tart part. Too much dough for that size pan, so I rolled it thinner and cut 2" off the outer edge, about 1/3 of the dough leftover. Your number 5. "Par bake the crust at 325 degrees for 10 minutes." This step didn't do much. I let it cool as instructed, spread 1 & 1/2 cups homemade cherry jam on there and decorated it with homemade almond paste balls. I baked it as instructed at 350 for 20 minutes, but left it in another 5 because it was not very brown as your photo indicates some nice browning. My oven is only 2 years old, electric and the temperature is what it says it is. The tart looks pretty but the crust was still too thick and it is gooey. The best part of the crust is at the very edge where it did become flaky like a cookie. The flavors are nice, it is not too sweet but I wasted alot of good butter as I'm going to scrape the toppings off the gooey raw'ish crust and throw it away. Something is wrong with your recipe.
Katie
Thank you for sharing!