Tuesday, August 11, 2015

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.

20 comments:

  1. Your tart looks just perfect. I love how you can make so much of the tart ahead of time and use different fruits for the filling. I all liked it.

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  2. Good idea of using a piping tip to pit the cherries! As for eating this tart, I'm in the boat of eating it warm. I like how the streusel crisps up a little bit.

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  3. I like the decorating tip pitting idea. Your tart looks wonderful Kathleen.

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  4. Beautiful tart! I have a cherry pitter but it's good to know that the decorating tip works.

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  5. You sound like an expert in pitting cherries. I used a pitter which took the fun out of the creative and adaptive process that you seemed to have fun with. The picture with one single cherry on top of the tart is spectacular.

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  6. Love your pictures, Cathleen. I think the cherry on top of the cake decorating tip is my favorite. I am posting a number of peach recipes this Friday and also saved all the peach pits for a picture. Love stone fruits. From reading everyone's posts, I do realize this tart does take some time and effort. Lovely job. I think I would like it hot, warm, room temperature or cold. Makes no difference. It just looks delicious.

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  7. Clever idea with the piping tip! Your tart is just beautiful! Well done!

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  8. Love all you photos and the end result if perfection.

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  9. You are right Cathleen, this one is a keeper. Delicious recipe and well worth all the work. Looks like you had some wonderfully ripe cherries.

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  10. This one certainly was a keeper, Cathleen! Yours looks marvelous…gorgeous photos! I love your technique for removing the pits! Very clever!

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  11. Looks amazing, Cathleen! Although if I were to speed a day making something special, I would probably make croissants or a Gâteau St. Honoré! My favorite tip from today is the reminder that if I need a technique for something, Google it! So much great information out there to make our lives easier! xo, David

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    1. Croissants are definitely worth a full day (or two!) to make. No question there!

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  12. That looks amazing! I actually have a cherry pitter, and love it, but I still get cherry juice everywhere! Love the oblong tart pan!

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  14. I like the slim rectangular pan you used...it's a good looking tart! I have a cheapo little cherry pitter, but feel like it gets a good workout every summer.

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  15. A paperclip and a decorating tip -- great ideas! I'm totally going to use those ideas next time. And your tart and your photos look soooo delicious!

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  16. Thank you for your comment! I love cherries, and couldn't believe how big the ones were than I found...but then I had those cute plums...they really wanted to be together ;-) Your tart looks gorgeous with the cherries with stems on top!

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  17. Great idea to use the piping tip! And I love the shape of your finished tart. So elegantly rectangular.

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  18. I loved using my rectangular tart pan for this. TWD is making the extra tart pan seem a lot less frivolous!

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  19. So fun seeing everyone's different methods to pit cherries-I almost feel lazy for using my pitter. Loving the rectangle shape on this.

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