Rustic Cherry Tart
Yields: 1 tart
Preparation time: 75 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes
Difficulty: Advanced
Pie Crust
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187.5g plain flour (1.5 cups)
Pinch salt
170gm butter
1/3 cup cold water
1 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp sugar
Method
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In food processor, pulse flour with salt. Add cold butter and process until looks like coarse sand. Do not over process.
Sprinkle in water, give it 1-2 blitz’s, but do not blitz until it turns into a ball.
Turn the sand like mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface and bring together.
Knead 2-3 times until it comes together. Pat dough into disk. Roll dough out to a 14-15 inch circle, and ¼ inch thick.
Place dough onto a prepared baking sheet.
Mix together the plain flour and sugar, and place in the centre of the circle, where you are putting the filling on top. This will protect the base and also help it caramelise.
Tart filling
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100g camembert or other soft cheese, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 red onion
2.5 cups cherries
2 tbsp red wine
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp thyme
½ tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp cold water
Additional thyme for serving
Olive oil
Method
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Preheat oven to 200 degrees
Boil cherries, red wine, sherry vinegar, sugar, pepper, thyme
Drain off some off the liquid, and reserve for later. You don’t want too much in the pie or it will make your base soggy.
Mix corn starch with water, then once cherries have boiled, mix in the slurry until mix thickens. Cool.
In a separate frypan, whilst you’re cooking the cherries. Slice red onion and cook in olive oil until softened. Should take about 10 minutes, no need to overcook as this is going into the oven but they need to be slightly caramelised.
Assembly and cooking
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Place onions on the base of tart, on top of the sugar/flour mixture that we have laid earlier.
On top of this layer, arrange the cheese. As if you were making a pizza.
Finally, top with the cherry mixture. Being sure not to go out to the edges as we are going to fold it in like a galette.
Fold the edges of the tart in, on sort of a 45 degree angle and bring it up so that the mixture won’t overflow when baked.
Refrigerate for 10 minutes
Bake for one hour at 200 degrees and the crust is golden and cooked through.
Brush with the leftover mixture that we had reserved from the cherry mix.
Top with some additional thyme and leave the tart to cool slightly before serving.
