Cherry Almond Tart with Shortcrust Pastry
My Cherry Almond Tart recipe is the perfect dessert to showcase the delicious flavor of Summer’s best fruit. The sweet, delicate shortcrust pastry shell holds creamy almond custard featuring a swirl of cherries and a cherry glaze. This dessert is simple and easy to make, but crazy delicious.
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This recipe was originally published on June 13, 2019. It was republished on July 14, 2022 with updates.
Story Time
The first time I made this recipe was actually the first time I ever made a tart! Back then, I was spurred on to start tackling pastries because I was going through the casting process for The Great American Baking Show. My first tart wasn’t beautiful, but the flavor was spot on.
Over the years, I’ve made a few more tarts. I just love that they’re a smaller dessert and generally lighter than a massive slice of cake. If you’ve never made a tart, you should give it a go!!
Tart Development
Anyways. I’ve been on a pastry streak, so it only made sense to finally use my tart pan. My husband suggested making a cherry tart. Cherries are the best and ever since I got this awesome cherry pitter when I made this cherry pie filling, I’m not opposed to using a boat load of fresh cherries in a recipe.
I have actually made this cherry almond tart with thawed frozen cherries. Flavorwise, it totally works, but it just doesn’t look as pretty. If you can get fresh cherries, I highly recommend that, but work with what you’ve got.
Cherry Almond Tart
But let’s dive right in. This simple dessert consists of three main components: shortcrust pastry shell, almond pastry cream, and the delicious cherry topping. Let me tackle each item and give you my thoughts and experiences. (Read: Learn from my mistakes!)
Shortcrust Pastry Shell
Tarts and pies are similar in theory, but besides using drastically different pans, they also use different dough. Most commonly, you make tarts with a shortcrust pastry that has a nice crumbly texture.
I made this dough in the food processor because it’s quick and easy, but I also have hands made of fire. Seriously, I could cook an egg in my hands and that’s not a good thing when you’re trying to keep butter cold.
Shortcrust Pastry Tips & Tricks
The process for making shortcrust pastry is basically the same as making a pie dough. There are three basic methods for doing that, so if just using a food processor isn’t your thang, check out this pie dough video and maybe you’ll like the other methods better.
I cannot remember where I saw this tip, but I have to tell you about it! It’s always a pain to have to get the pie weights into the crust and then take them out without spilling. Well, prepare for your life to change. I poured my pie weights (these pie weights, wheat berries, and brown rice) into an oven bag (like you would bake a turkey in). Now it’s easy to pop them in the crust, spread them out, then just pull the bag out. I store the bag full of pie weights in a big ziploc.
Related Reading: Mini Whiskey Caramel Tarts with a Shortbread Crust
Almond Pastry Cream
Almonds and cherries are two flavors that pair so well together. You could absolutely just use a vanilla custard here, but I wanted the almond flavor to compliment the flavor of the cherries. I suggest making the custard a day in advance so that it has plenty of time to chill.
This custard has a fairly strong almond flavor, which honestly tastes almost identical to cherry. On its own, I found it to be almost too strong. However, in the tart shell topped with cherries, it all perfectly balanced out. Feel free to adjust the flavors to suit your own taste.
Cherry Topping
Fresh, dark, juicy cherries are one of my favorite summer foods and they are the star of this recipe. 10/10 recommend using this massive cherry pitter to make life easy. I ended up using 42 cherries (yes, I counted), or 84 halves.
To preserve the texture and flavor of the Cherry Almond Tart, brush some cherry preserves over the top. Usually, you’ll see apricot preserves as a glaze, but I wanted to capitalize on the cherry flavor. Just warm up some cherry preserves in a small saucepan and strain out the solids. Use a pastry brush or a small paint brush to gently cover the cherries and custard.
Watch the Magic Happen
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like tarts aren’t the most common bake ever. Not that they’re rare or anything, but a casual home baker might not have a ton of experience with them. That’s why I made a video for this cherry almond tart!
Check out each step of the recipe. Whenever I’m tackling a new bake, I find it super helpful to watch how it’s done before I dive in myself. Hopefully you find this little tutorial helpful!
Blunders
Pie and tart dough has been a struggle for me for literal years, but I’m starting to figure it out. The first time I made this dough, it was a bit wet and tore when I tried to move it. My best tip is to keep it moving. As you roll, rotate and flip it regularly while also adding a dusting of flour as needed.
Once you’ve got it all together, it would behoove you to chill the tart for about an hour before slicing. Otherwise, the custard will splooge a bit. Even after chilling, it won’t retain its shape indefinitely as it’s not a baked custard.
Extra Pastry
I’ve never been a fan of throwing away scraps. When I make cake, leftover batter either becomes waffles or cupcakes. And when I made the lemon meringue pie, I baked the pie crust scraps for a little snack. I’ve also made hand pies with extra almond paste from the croissants.
Next time I’ll prick the tops so that they don’t puff up as much. You could fill them with extra cherry preserves too. And I think an egg wash would help them brown up nicely because the milk wash made no difference. I baked them at 350℉ for 15 minutes.
Related Reading: Classic Cherry Pie From Scratch
Final Thoughts
I bought a marble rolling pin months ago because I thought it would be great for pastry. Marble is great for keeping your pastry dough cool, which is why I have a marble pastry slab. Well, this rolling pin is just way too heavy to work with delicate pastry. It’s very pretty, but I think this would be better for working with sturdier recipes, like bread.
After I started handling the shortcrust pastry dough, I was worried that the added moisture and work I put into it would cause the tart shell to shrink up horribly. I was super surprised that it didn’t shrink much at all! You want the dough to be just moist enough to stick together. Keep that in mind.
Enjoy!
You don’t have to have any experience with pastry to be able to make this simple Cherry Almond Tart. Make life easy and prep the almond pastry cream the night before. Then all you have to do is make a quick tart shell in your food processor, bake it, and fill your tart with custard and cherries. This might become your new favorite way to eat cherries.
Cherry Almond Tart
Ingredients
Almond Pastry Cream
- 1 egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 12 fl oz whole milk
- 2.5 oz sugar
- 1.5 oz all- purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1.5 Tbsps unsalted butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry Shell
- 4 oz unsalted butter cubed and chilled
- 6 oz all-purpose flour
- 0.5 oz almond flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1.75 oz sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 2-3 Tbsps cold water
Topping
- 2- 3 cups cherries, pitted and halved about 42 whole cherries
- 5 oz cherry preserves
Instructions
Almond Pastry Cream
- Whisk together the egg and egg yolks in a medium or large bowl and set aside. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the milk, sugar, flour, and salt. Place on a medium heat, whisking regularly.
- Bring the milk mixture to a bare simmer, then remove from the heat. Whisk a ladle of the hot milk into the eggs. Gradually whisk half of the hot milk into the eggs one ladle at a time. Keep the eggs moving constantly to prevent them from cooking and becoming lumpy. Whisk well between additions.
- Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and place back on medium heat. Bring it to a boil. Continue to cook for 30 seconds to a minute once it boils. Stir constantly the entire time.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Stir until the butter is completely melted. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl. Immediately press cling wrap onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming.
- Allow the custard to come to room temperature before placing in the fridge to chill for at least an hour. It's best to make this the night or morning before you need it.
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry Shell
- Cube the butter and place in the fridge to stay cold while you gather the rest of your ingredients.
- Place the flour, almond flour, salt, and sugar in your food processor and pulse until combined.
- Scatter the cold, cubed butter evenly over the flour mixture. Pulse 3-4 times. Scrape down the bowl, then pulse 3-4 more times. The mixture should look like sand.
- Add the egg yolk and pulse another 2- 3 times. The mixture will look about the same, but with a slight yellow tinge.
- While the food processor is running, drizzle in 2 tablespoons of the cold water. If the dough is too dry to hold itself together, add up to one more tablespoon a little bit at a time. You don't want the mixture to become too wet.
- Once the dough is finished. Dump it onto some cling wrap. Use the cling wrap to shape it into a ball. Flatten the ball into a disc, wrap and chill for 1 hour, or overnight.
- After the pastry dough has had enough time to chill, roll the dough into a 12 inch circle on a lightly floured work surface. Continue to move the dough around to make sure it is not sticking. Add more flour underneath if it begins to stick.
- Either drape your rolled out dough over your rolling pin, or fold it up into quarters and place it into your tart pan. Gently press the dough into the corners and along the ridged sides of the pan. Once the dough is how you like it, run the rolling pin over the top of the tart pan to trim off the excess dough.
- Chill the tart shell in the fridge for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Once the dough is chilled, prick the bottom of the shell all over with a fork to prevent it from puffing up in the oven. Use an oven bag or parchment paper and cover the shell with pie weights. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove the pie weights and bake for an additional 12- 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the shell to cool completely before assembling.
Assembling the Tart
- While the tart shell is cooling, remove the almond pastry cream from the fridge and allow it to loosen up a smidge.
- Once the shell is cool, fill it with the almond pastry cream. Place cherries in concentric rings, filling up the entire tart.
- Warm up the cherry preserves in a small saucepan. Strain out the solids and use a brush to glaze the tart. Chill for 1 hour before serving.
Notes
- You can use more all purpose flour for the almond flour if you'd like!
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Colleen
Hi there! I’m Colleen, a novice baker with a passion for learning and improving my bakes… and blunders. On Bakes and Blunders, you can find all sorts of tasty recipes that range in difficulty, but most importantly, I’ll try to explain the reason behind important steps. If you know why a recipe works, you can tweak and adapt it to suit your unique tastes, and you’ll be able to reliably produce some very delicious treats. If you love baking and want to expand and grow your skills, or if you are a casual baker and just need some pointers, my blog is right up your alley! Join me on my baking journey and we’ll learn how to make more impressive recipes together.
12 Comments
Beth
I love cherries, custard and pastry, so I know I’d love this. Of course if I want to share with family I’ll try gluten-free options. Will share blunders since I know there will be some!
Colleen
Almost all of my blunders are still edible 😉 And that’s all that matters!
Angela Greven | Mean Green Chef
A lovely tart with such an amazing flavor combo, almond pastry cream, and cherries!! Plus shortcrust pastry is truly an amazing pastry to work with too 😋
Colleen
Thanks 🙂 Can’t wait to make another tasty tart!
Jennifer
Cherries and almonds together sounds amazing! Yum!!
Colleen
They are just a perfect pair. I don’t know why, but they just are!
Morgan
This cherry almond tart looks SOO good! I love all of the tips and tricks you provided as well. Super helpful!
Colleen
Thanks! I always want to give as many tips as possible 🙂
angela
I love the blunder you shared and how to fix the crust. I think the crust would be the hardest part for bakers and it is nice to know we are all human and it is ok! All taste the same, right!?
Colleen
Absolutely! I will not pretend to be perfect, because I mess up just as much as anyone else. It’s just important to know how to fix your blunders when they happen.
Erika
What perfect looking tarts. They are gorgeous and look delicious!
Colleen
Thanks! I’m so happy with how my first one turned out 🙂