Well, I'm happy to say that this week's recipe for Tuesday's with Dorie, was much more successful than the last one. This week we made a Cherry Crumb Tart. Again, we aren't crazy about fruit desserts at my house. But, this one was a winner. Maybe it was all of the crumbled up sugar on top or the yummy shortbread-like crust. My daughter even ate the cherries in it (she never eats cooked fruit) rather than leaving them in a pile on the side of the plate.
We made this recipe in phases. We prepared the crust the day before and froze it in the pan overnight. I chose to press the dough into the pan rather than roll it. I thought we would all like the thicker crust and the ease of pressing it in.
The next morning we baked the crust, prepared the crumble for the top and the pie filling and refrigerated both for a couple of hours. Both were very easy to make and came together in minutes. We especially liked putting our fingers in the crumble topping and playing in the "sand".
While those two components were chilling we pitted the cherries. It was quite fun, though it did look a bit like a massacre. As Dorie recommended we used a bottle and a chopstick (I didn't have a chopstick so I used a thick wooden skewer.) We placed a cherry on top of the bottle, stem side up, and pushed down and were amazed at how easily the pits came out and landed in the bottle. Once we had thoroughly stained everything in site with cherry juice we prepared the tart.
The filling spread easily over the crust then we placed a nice layer of cherries on top and baked as instructed, we added the crumb to the top and baked a little longer and soon had a beautiful, golden tart. We all tried it and loved it. I took the second half of the tart to my office this morning and it was a big hit there as well. This is one fruit dessert I would consider making a again!
The recipe for this Cherry Crumb Tart can be found on page 148 of Dorie Greenspan's cookbook, Baking Chez Moi.
