Recipes

Chef Dominic Chapman of The Royal Oak in Maidenhead loves to use the local acid cherries, such as Morello in his traditional Cherry Bakewell Tart.

Serves 4

For the Sweet shortcrust pastry
   
    450g plain flour
    5g salt
    300g butter
    150g icing sugar
    Zest of 1 lemon
    2 egg yolks
    2 whole eggs

For the Frangipane

    225g caster sugar
    225g unsalted butter
    15 drops almond essence
    175g ground almonds
    50g plain flour
    4 eggs

For the Sour cherries

    2kg Morello cherries, stoned
    200g sugar

    Flaked almonds

Method

To make the pastry, sift together the flour and salt. Quickly rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles crumbs. Mix the sugar and lemon zest into the mixture, then add the egg yolks and eggs. Work everything together and rest in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 170C.

To make the frangipane, cream together the butter and sugar until pale. Mix together the almonds and flour. Alternately add one egg at a time to the butter and sugar mixture, sprinkling a little of the almond and flour mix over at the same time to help the eggs bind.  Once all the eggs are well incorporated, fold in the rest of the almond and flour mixture.

Place half the cherries in a pan with the sugar. Dissolve the sugar over a low heat, remove the pan from the heat, blitz the cherries until smooth, either with a hand blender or in a food processor, then return to the heat. Reduce until it coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little then add the remaining cherries.

Roll out the pastry. Line individual tart moulds with the pastry, then spoon in 50g (about 2 tbsp) of cherries into the base of the mould with a little of the juice. Then smooth over about 80g of frangipane over the top of the cherries. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, then sprinkle flaked almonds over the tarts. Bake for another 20 minutes - make sure the pastry is cooked through.

Serve warm with a little custart, cream or ice cream.