Chocolate and Vanilla Tarts with Cherries

It was so hard to think of something to make for my first post. I had a few rules I wanted to follow. I wanted something with cherries, I wanted something from my repetoire of recipes that I use all the time, and I wanted something a little special.
When I was in France, I used to bake every day. One of the first things I learnt to make was pastry - both a savoury (pâte brisée) and sweet version (pâte sucrée). I have to say that this is what opened up the world of baking to me, because once you can make pastry you can make quiches, pies and tarts of course.

Which brings me to my next discovery, crème pâtissière, to which I have Damien Pignolet's wonderful book French to thank! He advocates adding lightly whipped cream to the cooled custard, which lightens both the texture and flavour of the crème pâtissière.

With pâte sucrée and crème pâtissière, you can make any fruit tart. Here I have added cocoa to the pastry to make the tart slightly richer and to offset the sweetness of the crème and the cherries, and of course how could I make a custard with out vanilla? But you could add melted chocolate, fruit puree or lemon zest if you wanted.

Slightly altering the flavourings of both the flavouring and the custard to complement the flavours of the fruit is the key to an interesting fruit tart!


Chocolate and Vanilla Tarts with Cherries

20 cherries, pitted and halved

Pâte sucrée au chocolat

150g butter
1 cup plain flour
¼ cup cocoa
¼ cup icing sugar
1 egg, beaten

Iced water

Crème pâtissière

3 egg yolks
225mL milk
3 1/2T caster sugar
1T plain flour
1tsp vanilla bean paste

150mL thickened cream

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
In a food processor, combine flour, cocoa, icing sugar and butter until mixture resembles crumbs. Add egg. Process. Add a little water until dough just comes together in a ball. Divide dough in two, form each half into a ball and cover in cling wrap.
Refrigerate for 30 mins, remove and roll out until approximately 3mm thick and line 4 loose bottomed10cm tart tins. Prick the base of each tart lightly.
Cook for 10 minutes, and leave to cool

Heat milk in saucepan over low heat, slowly bringing the milk to boil. At the same time beat sugar and egg yolks until light and fluffy. Incorporate flour until well combined.
Add hot milk, and whisk mixture over low heat until mixture thickens. The consistency should be thick enough to leave a ribbon of custard.
Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla. Leave to cool.
Whisk cream until soft peaks form. Fold into cooled custard.

To assemble tarts, spoon crème pâtissière into tart cases and arrange cherry halves in a circular pattern. Enjoy!