In celebration of National Cherry Month, I decided to let my students do half the work for me as we were working on tarts in class last night. Thanks for the dough Susan, Angela, Emily, Holly, Melanie and Tara!!!

I utilized a pate sucree dough for this tart. It is sweeter and richer than a typical pie dough as it contains 1/2 cup sugar which is atypical of a basic pie crust. While delicious to eat, a pate sucree dough is a bit harder to work with as the dough is softer and stickier but man is it yummy and did it work well with this recipe!

This tart doesn’t use cherries which are a bit labor intensive but instead uses cherry preserves. Thankfully, cherry preserves are more readily stocked at your local grocery store than they were 10 years ago so I consider this tart a pantry throw together utilizing items most of us have in our pantry or refrigerator. I used cherries and almonds to celebrate National Cherry Month but you could use apricot preserves and pecans, pineapple preserves and macadamia nuts, peach preserves and pistachios.  In other words, a very versatile basic which you can make your own.

PATE SUCREE

1 stick plus 2 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg, divided
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Put butter and sugar into food processor and process until smooth. Add 1 egg and process about 10 seconds. Add the yolk of the second egg and process about 10 seconds. Add the flour and salt and process about 30 seconds. If the dough doesn’t start to come together, add the white from the second egg. Turn onto a floured surface and very gently knead just until the dough comes together. Wrap and refrigerate about 15 minutes.

The dough can be rolled but it is also perfectly acceptable to just press the dough into the pan with your fingers for which it will be used. The manipulations will not affect the dough due to its softness and it won’t tear like a basic pie dough.

CHERRY ALMOND TART

1 recipe pate sucree dough
15 ounce jar cherry preserves
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Press half of the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan. I used a rectangular tart pan with a removable bottom measuring approximately 14×4. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Spread cherry preserves over the top of the pre baked tart shell. Take the remaining half of the dough and roll it into strips to create a lattice pattern. Beat yolk with 1 tsp water and brush the lattice. Return the tart to the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350 and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Brush edges with egg wash and sprinkle almonds around edges. Bake for 15 more minutes. Cool for 15 minutes on wire rack. Gently remove sides and cool completely.

This is pretty sweet so a small sliver will suffice.  Serve as is, with some freshly whipped cream or a small scoop of ice cream.   Three cheers for National Cherry Month!!!