Ingredients
Pastry
125g plain flour
5g dried yeast
30g castor sugar
1/4 cup warm milk
1 egg yolk
25g soft butter
2 drops vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Filling
500g sour cherries (after stemming and stoning, should have 400g)
1 tbsp cherry pits, crushed with a meat mallet
3/4 cup sugar
Juice 1 lemon
3 tbsp ground almonds
1 tsp granulated sugar
Method
Place flour in a bowl. Mix sugar, yeast and warm milk and set aside for five minutes until bubbly. Stir to a cream.
Whisk in the yolk, vanilla and cinnamon. Place flour in the bowl of a food processor and with motor running feed in the milk/yeast mixture.
Follow immediately with the soft butter. As soon as a soft dough is formed, stop machine, scrape dough onto a floured bench and knead lightly. Place in the bowl, cover and leave for half an hour.
To cook cherries (or gooseberries)
Remove all stalks and pits. Reserve 1 tbsp of cherry pits. Put reserved pits in a piece of muslin and smash.
Tie corners to make a secure bundle. Place cherries, bundle of pits, sugar and lemon juice in a heavy-based non-reactive pot. Bring to simmering point, stirring once or twice. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Drain fruit through a sieve resting over a bowl. Return syrup to the pot and boil to reduce by half.
Preheat oven to 200C.
Select a 28cm pizza tray and brush it with butter. On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough to a rough 28cm circle. Place it on the greased pizza tray. Scatter almonds over leaving a 3cm border free.
Spoon fruit over almonds. Fold pastry edges over the edge of the fruit. Brush folded edge with a little of the reserved syrup and scatter with the granulated sugar.
Bake tart for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 180C and cook for another 10 minutes. Slide tart onto a cake cooling rack to cool. When it has cooled a little, drizzle with the reserved syrup. Serve warm or cold with thick cream.
