Cherry & Almond Tart

Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and beat for 6-7 mins until light and fluffy. Incorporate the eggs one by one, making sure the last egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. You should have a smooth, light batter. If it looks a bit split, add a tbsp of the flour before adding the next egg, don’t sweat it!

Fold in the almond extract and salt. Sift over the almonds and flour and beat into the mixture. Pop into the fridge for 30 mins or so.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Roll out your pastry until it’s roughly the thickness of a £1 coin. Pop your 23cm tin in the centre of the pastry and cut a large circle around, leaving plenty of extra space around the tin, this creates the walls of your tart. Lift the pastry into the tart case and nudge it into the corners. If it breaks at all, don’t worry, just patch it up with some excess.

Leave plenty of overhanging pastry on the sides of the tart and line with baking paper. Fill the lined tart with rice or dried beans and slide into the oven for 15-20 mins. Remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 10 mins at 170°C.

While the pastry is blind baking, remove the stalks and stones from the cherries. I like to put the frangipane into a piping bag to fill the tart, it makes things a little easier but is absolutely not essential.

Allow the pastry to cool a little before you fill it. If you’re using the jam, spread it over the base of the tart. Top with the frangipane and then stud the top with plenty of cherries. Make the tart as full as you can.

Slide back into the oven for 35-40 mins or until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool before trimming the excess pastry from the rim of the tart and popping out of the tin. Serve with creme fraiche and a dusting of icing sugar.