Easy Cherry Frangipane Tart. Like a Version.

Those of you, dear friends, who have followed this blog for a while may remember the other versions of my easy frangipane tart. The summer apricot version is extremely popular with readers but the pear version is my favourite in late Autumn. Follow the seasons and try any fresh fruit you fancy.

The cherry rendition follows the same recipe but this time I have used a rectangular fluted baking tin, and added a cherry coulis. The pitting of cherries was a speedy exercise, thanks to a little research and Mr Tranquillo’s nimble hands. The best kitchen gadget for cherry pitting is a plain icing or piping tip- you just push the tip through one end of the cherry and out pops the pip. The alternative, but a little slower, is the pointed end of a chopstick. Magic tricks in the kitchen.

Torta di Mandorle, Ciliegie e Amaretto – Italian Almond and Cherry Tart with Amaretto.

Ingredients

  • 125 g softened unsalted butter
  •  150 g of castor sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 50 g plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 375 g almond meal
  • 2 Tablespoons Amaretto liqueur
  • 500 g or less of dark, ripe cherries, pitted.
  • 25 g flaked almonds

Method

Preheat oven to 180c /160c FF. Grease a 34 cm x 12 cm loose bottom rectangular tin. Grease and line base. Grease and flour sides. ( or use a 25 cm round loose bottomed tin as per original recipe links above)

Place butter and sugar and eggs in a mixer bowl and beat for 5 minutes until thick and pale. ( if the mixture curdles at this point, throw in a little of your pre-measured flour, or just don’t worry). Scrape down the sides as you go.

Stir in the flour mixed with the baking powder, then fold in the almond meal, followed by the Amaretto.  Pour into the prepared tin.

Press whole cherries into the almond batter.
Press whole cherries into the almond batter.

Arrange the cherries and press them into the batter so they are submerged. Scatter the top with the flaked almonds. You might not use all the cherries so reserve them for a coulis.

Scatter top with almond flakes then bake.
Scatter top with almond flakes then bake.

Bake for about 40 mins but check after 30 mins and move the tray around for even browning. Cool in tin, then remove to a flat serving platter.

In profile
In profile after baking

Cherry Coulis.

Using the remaining pitted cherries, halve them, put in a small saucepan with a little caster sugar, water and lemon juice. Cook gently for five minutes then puree in a blender. Strain if you like a fine coulis. If too runny, put the mixture back into the pan to reduce a little.

Cherry Frangipane with a little sifted icing sugar
Al fresco con una torta di mandorle e ciliegie.
Al fresco con una torta di mandorle e ciliegie.

44 thoughts on “Easy Cherry Frangipane Tart. Like a Version.”

  2. Absolutely LOVE these simple fruit tarts… they’re always perfect with tea, and I always feel like tea and cake! The cherry coulis sounds nice and simple for such a gorgeous touch, too 🙂

    Like

    Reply

    1. Not sure how it would go with less sugar, but worth a try. The cake serves around 10 people- unless you eat it all yourself. That’s about 3-4 teaspoons of sugar per slice, a lot if you have other added sugar in your diet, not much if a cake is a weekend treat.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. I was looking about for a cherry pipper then came across this hint on Mr Google. Mr T does these tasks, peel prawns, chop onions, peel garlic, wash dishes- he can’t cook but he is the best kitchen hand a signora could want.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Sorry about the late reply Susan. Caster sugar is finer than granulated or everyday sugar. I think it is sold in USA as super refined sugar, but not, it is not icing sugar. The best way is to use ordinary sugar or refine it further in a food processor. You could use canned or frozen cherries but they will be wetter and might alter the texture of the batter. In winter, I use fresh pears which are in their prime ( from Autumn). I peel, core and slice them into the batter. I find this version to be ‘molto Italiano ‘ in flavour, especially with the additional bit of Amaretto liquor.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  19. Pingback: where to from here? | ardysez

  20. This is fantastic, Francesca. Not only do I have some cherries in my freezer waiting for me to give them a purpose, but I also have a rectangular fluted pan that I use to prepare Mom’s crostati. I’m not one to believe in signs but I think the baking gods are telling me to make your tart. Smart gods. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

Now over to you.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.