Cherry Tarts

Star Q

i.  When's The Next Holidays?

ii.  Stay Safe, Kids

I went to visit my dad last week and on the way back home decided to drop by one of the huge hypermarkets.  I was not really surprised to see an abundance of imported fruits being sold because it is after all still Lunar New Year.  I have always wanted to buy cherries but was always uncertain as to whether they would be sweet or otherwise.

I decided to take a chance this time and bought about twenty cherries (count by the units not weight!) sold at a whopping RM12.00!  I considered it to be considerably cheaper than the ones I saw sold back home which cost a staggering RM1 per fruit!!!  I was indeed happy with the cherries I bought because they turned out to be quite sweet, even though they were rather expensive.

My kids wanted to chow down all the fruits after they found out they were sweet but I told them I would be making tarts out of the cherries, and they obediently waited.

• 1 20cm x 20cm store-bought short crust pastry
• 50 g butter
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 large egg
• 50 g ground almond
• 3 tbs AP flour
• 200 g cherries, pitted and halved

Preheat oven to 170 C.  Grease four 4 cm fluted tart tins and line with the short crust pastry.  Prick the base of the short crust pastry with a fork and bake them until they are dry and lightly golden.  Set aside to cool.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.  Then stir in the vanilla essence and beat in the egg.   Fold in the ground almond and flour and divide mixture evenly into the four tart tins.  Arrange the cherry halves, cut side down, and bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown.  Serve warm.