Black cherry tart

Black cherries are one of my favourite summer fruits, and this tart is a lovely way to enjoy them! I decided to use them fresh rather than bake them into the pastry – I much prefer sour cherries for baking, and we’ll have to wait another month or so for those. The tart has a crisp pastry base, a layer of cherry jam, smooth vanilla cream and, best of all, plenty of juicy black cherries. A simple but lovely summer dessert to share with family and friends! 🙂

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• 200 g plain flour
• 120 g cold butter, diced
• 60 g icing sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 2–3 tbsp cold water

Sift the flour into a bowl, add the butter and quickly chop it in with a knife until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar, salt and water, then quickly bring everything together into a dough (you can also use a food processor). Shape into a ball, flatten slightly, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 60 minutes.

Grease a 24 cm tart tin with butter and dust with plain flour, shaking off any excess. Roll out the chilled pastry to approximately 3 mm thick and use it to line the tin. Refrigerate again for 30 minutes. Dust the chilled pastry lightly with flour, line it with baking paper and fill with ceramic baking beans (dried beans or rice will also work).

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Reduce the temperature to 200°C, place the pastry case in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully lift out the baking paper and weights. Reduce the oven temperature to 190°C, return the pastry case to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes, until the base is golden and fully baked. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Ingredients for the vanilla cream:

• 250 g mascarpone, chilled
• 250 ml whipping cream, chilled
• 1½ tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod

Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until thick and creamy.

You will also need:

• several generous tablespoons of cherry jam or another red berry jam
• 300-400 g cherries, stoned, plus a few whole ones for decoration
• mint or lemon balm leaves, for decoration

Spread the cooled pastry case with cherry jam. Spoon the vanilla cream over the top and smooth it out. Refrigerate until chilled and set. Arrange the cherries over the cream, decorate with the whole cherries and fresh mint or lemon balm leaves, then serve.

Enjoy!