Cherry Chocolate Tart For The Win!

So this is so random but my neighbor said that she visited her old air force buddies and Waco and received a whole case of cherries. Basically a whole flat of cherries. And she gave me about 8 two lb bags of cherries. How nice right? I decided that I needed to figure out all of the ways I was going to use these cherries. I know I was going to make some cherry jam, some cherry curd, some kind of baked goodies, and some kind of cherry syrup. I also wanted to bake something nice for my neighbor who thought of me. I wanted to make a beautiful tart for her using some of the cherries. Hey when I think of cherries I also think of chocolate covered cherries. That's how this tart was born. I wanted to make that sweet pastry crust and fill it with a delicious chocolate filling and then top it with those yummy tart cherries. I challenged myself with the decoration for the top of the tart and I think it came out beautiful.

chocolate cherry tart

I also had a little pastry dough left to make me a tiny tart. I added crushed pistachios, and it was delicious.

look how cute that looks

Ok lets start on the crust

You will need the following

Pastry Shell (more than enough for a 9in tart pan)

• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup  powdered sugar (or ¼ cup granulated sugar)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

First for the pastry shell, add flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor for a few seconds and pulse until combined. If you don’t have a food processor, you can do this by using a pastry cutter. 

Add butter and pulse until mixture becomes crumbly and resembles coarse meal, about 15 pulses.

Add egg and vanilla extract and keep pulsing until the dough is no longer dry and starts to clump together, about 10-15 seconds. Do not process to the point that a large ball of dough is formed; rather the dough should be quite crumbly with large clumps. Another way to check if it’s done is to take a piece of dough and press it between your thumbs – the dough should stick without feeling dry or crumbly.

Turn dough to a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. It should come together easily without being sticky. Flatten ball slightly with your hands to form a thick disc. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. I made this dough two days before and just placed it in the fridge for 2 days.

*If you don’t want to use the dough right away, you can refrigerate it for up to 3 days, or freeze it for up to a month and then thaw overnight in the fridge.

Now take your dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to soften slightly for easy rolling. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into an 11-inch circle, then place gently into a 9-inch tart pan (preferably with a removable bottom)

So know I wrap this tart crust in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes to reduce shrinkage when baking. 

Take it out and prick the bottom of your tart dough with a fork

Preheat oven to 375F and place oven rack in the center.

Now I take a piece of aluminum foil and spray with baking spray or rub with butter and press it tightly to the crust. ( you can add pie weights, dried beans or rice to way down the foil and insure that your crust does not puff up while baking)

Bake crust for 20 minutes, until foil no longer sticks to the dough. Transfer crust to a wire rack and remove weights and foil.

Bake for about 7-10 minutes longer until golden brown and dry. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

you should be able to knock on the bottom of the crust without it falling apart.

Your crust should be a golden brown

Just let this cool completely before putting in any filling.

Now on to the filling 

Chocolate mousse filling

8oz of chocolate

3/4 cup of heavy cream

2 tablespoons of butter

1/4 cup of powdered sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

3/4 cup of heavy cream

Take 3/4 cup of heavy cream and place in a small saucepan over medium heat.

heat in saucepan until cream starts to bubble around the edges, add in vanilla extract.

remove from heat and pour over 8oz of chocolate

I like to let it sit like this for a minute before I whisk

whisk until combined

add in your two tablespoons of butter

whisk until butter is fully incorporated and then set aside.

now the ganache part is complete

shiny smooth ganache

next take 3/4 cup of cream and place in a bowl and whip until you achieve a soft whipped cream add in your powdered sugar and whip until combined

stop when it gets to this point don't beat this to like a stiff cream

Now fold this into your chocolate ganache mixture

just gently fold it in

so velvety good

Place this in your cooled tart shell

plop it in the shell

Now add half- pitted cherries in some sort of design

I thought it looked nice like this, but I wanted to showcase all the cherries.

at this point I was contemplating stopping, but I pushed on

keep going (this took me like 40 minutes) I don't have a cherry pitter so I had to do everything by hand, but it paid off guys.

beautiful cherry chocolate tart

I then sealed this cherries by microwaving a little cherry jam and brushing that on with a pastry brush and then I set the whole tart in the fridge for two hours before delivering to my neighbor.

It looks stunningly beautiful and the little mini one was delicious.

Look at this little mini chocolate cherry tart

look at the cute little flower of cherries

The neighbor said it tasted amazing and even came by and gave me a little thank you card. I was just thankful she gave me all those cherries so I could make some cool things, and I was happy that she enjoyed the tart. 

so nice