Black Forest frangipane tarts

Pie making is not my forte and after watching endless Buzzfeed pie making videos I started to really worry about my skills, especially as me and Kelly decided to host an Instagram pie party.

I have been testing different types of shortcrust pastry recipes for a while but my nutty versions were huge fails. I also made peace with my “rustic” crust style (or rough around the edges as I call it sometimes) but instead of getting so hung up on the look of the pie edge I moved on to the most important bit: filling and its endless possibilities!

Frangipane was one of the first things I ever baked, and have baked quite a few times over the years with a variety of fillings. I have never actually made the traditional frangipane recipe, the addition of sweet jam has always been too sweet for me. Thinking about the warmth darkness of a black forest gateau I wanted to bring the flavours of cocoa and dark cherries to this tart.

I soaked the cherries in Port and orange juice, which initially was a haphazardly addition as I didn’t have any kirsch and it turned out sooooo good. Best to leave it to soak overnight.

250g plain flour

25g icing sugar

125g unsalted butter

2 yolks, beaten

100g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

3 eggs

100g almonds ground

30g cocoa powder

100g frozen cherries

40g dark brown sugar

50ml Port wine

Juice of 1/2 orange

Double cream

1. Mix the dark brown sugar with the Port, orange juice and Cherries, mix to combine and leave the cherries to soak overnight

2. Make the pastry by rubbing together the butter and flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the yolks to the mixture with two tablespoons of water and mix to a firm dough. Roll out onto a lightly floured board and use to line a 12 cup muffin tray. Grease the tray with butter before adding the pastry. Leave to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes

3. Preheat the oven to 170C and start making the filling by beating the butter and caster sugar together with an electric whisk, then add one egg at a time as you continue to whisk. With a spatula fold in the ground almonds and cocoa powder until all combined

4. Blind bake the pastry for 10 minutes at 170c (fan).

5. Drain the cherries from the juice. Add a spoonful of cherries to pastry cases and top it with cocoa mixture. Bake it for 15 minutes and leave it to cool on a cookie rack. Top it off with whipped double cream and a dusting of cocoa powder.