Jeanne here.
Every summer there is a bounty of beautiful bright red super sour cherries bursting from a tree in our front yard.
And every year, we harvest them and wonder … now what?
Three years ago, I harvested them. Then waited to long and didn’t do anything with them. (AAAARRRrgh! Procrastination wins again!)
Last year I tried dehydrating them. (I wish I had a photo of the sad little not dried, but burnt to a crisp little cherry bombs … it was an EPIC fail.)
This year … I’ve learned a few tricks about dehydrating in our oven that doesn’t have a temperature setting below 170 degrees. But I totally chickened out. I just couldn’t risk the loss of time it took to harvest these little beauties (which is basically quadrupled when you’re doing it with a 4 year-old and a 21 month-old). Plus … they were so pretty and plump. I wanted to celebrate their jubilant perfect sweet-tartness!
Now I’m going to warn you … this tart may not be pretty.
But if you’re looking for a dessert to pair with savory summer dinner?
This might just be the ticket.
SOUR CHERRY TART
INGREDIENTS:
For the Filling:
- 2-3 cups of pitted SOUR cherries (Bing cherries will change this tart dramatically … this is really about SOUR cherries. But if you use Bing cherries, reduce the amount of maple syrup and add the juice of 1 lemon to the water)
- 1/2 cup of grade B maple syrup
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water.
- 2 tablespoons tapioca pearls
For the crumble topping:
- 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1/4 cup cold pastured butter
In a medium non-reactive bowl, combine the cherries, maple syrup, water and tapioca pearls. Cover and set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
When you’re ready to start making the tart, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Pour the macerated cherries into your tart pan.
Combine the sugar, flour and chia seeds until well-mixed. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the cold pastured butter until it’s crumbly. (I used salted butter because it’s what I had on hand. If you are using unsalted butter, you’ll have to add a little salt to the mixture.)
Spread the topping over the cherries and bake for about 30-35 minutes (until the cherries and juice are bubbling up through the topping). NOTE: I generally put a pan in the oven on the rack below the tart because undoubtedly the juice bubbles over and I’m not looking for excuses in the summer to turn on the self-cleaning-oven option.
This tart is GREATLY complimented by a dollop of vanilla ice cream. Perfect summer-evening-dessert-on-the-patio crazy day topper.
Do you have fruit trees in your yard? How do you use the yield?
