TWD | Baking Chez Moi | Cherry Crumb Tart

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking Chez Moi
by Dorie Greenspan

This tart was an all day affair to put together - but with a little advanced planning it can be made over a few days if need be.

There are several ways to pit a cherry if you don't have a cherry pitter - from using a knife to using a paperclip - just do a Google search. Here, I used a decorating tip. Worked great - took me about twelve minutes to pit a pound of cherries. Next time I would pit them inside of a bowl to capture the juices.

Pitting cherries can be quite messy - this method seemed to have minimal squirting when done slowly.

If you want a less messy and faster way to pit cherries, you can lay the cherries out on a rimmed cookie sheet or on a board, and place a piece of parchment over them, and tap them lightly with a mallet, as shown in this video. Your cherries won't stay whole (many of mine did not anyway) as Dorie prefers, but for this dessert, I really don't think it would matter all that much.

After partially baking the crust, and letting it cool to room temperature, it is filled with an almond or hazelnut filling made from butter, sugar, nut flour (I just ground up some hazelnuts), cornstarch, egg, and kirsch (or vanilla extract) - I subbed cassis. The pitted cherries are placed atop the filling and baked until the filling puckers up all around the fruit.

If cherries are unavailable, I'm sure any fruit, from blueberries to peaches would work here. 

A streusel topping made from sugar, orange zest, flour, salt, cardamon, butter, and vanilla extract, is sprinkled over the top and baked once more until lightly golden.

Dorie recommends serving this at room temperature the same day it is made. Her husband however, prefers it cold from the fridge, and I agree with him. I thought it was really good cold - so this would make a good candidate for a make ahead dessert.

We have been asked not to post the recipes here on our blogs. You can find the recipe on page 148 of Baking Chez Moi, or over at Google Books.

You can check out my fellow baker's results, by clicking here for a list of their links.