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It appears that today I had a birthday. Hm. Well done me! There were shiny beads and yak yarn and chocolate-cherry-almond tartlettes and many considerate good wishes. Thank you! You're very kind.
The image above is not naart, it's from Anthropologie's July catalogue and therefore has a funny crease across it. No, naart is slow and turning out to be a two-parter, which I really ought to have expected but somehow didn't. Who knew that embroidering owl pellet pillows was time so consuming? Not me.
Chocolate Cherry Almond Tartlettes: A General Guide
- 1/3 c. butter, chilled and cubed
- 1 c flour
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 - 3 tbsp water
- 6 oz ± baking chocolate, depending on your predeliction for chocolate. Go for something nice and high-end though.
- 2/3 - 1 c dried cherries
- 1/2 c merlot or sweet red wine. We had cherry wine in this instance.
- 6 oz tube of almond paste
- 1/4 c sparkling or granulated sugar
- 3 1/2" saucer or similar cutting shape
Soak dried cherries in wine to rehydrate, set aside. Chop chocolate into small 1/4" chunks, set aside. Divide almond paste into balls approx 1" in diameter (variable to your fondness for almonds) - somewhere between 8 and 12 in all - flatten balls into discs, set aside. It is ok to have leftovers.
Make up pie crust (I am not going to walk you through this again). Roll out and, using the saucer, cut 3 1/2" rounds of dough with knife, transferring to a cookie sheet. Assemble tartlette: place round of almond paste on bottom, some chocolate chunks and cherries on top. *The width of almond paste should be just over half the width of the pie dough. Gently fold excess pie crust over to cover the filling, pleat if you want to be fancy about it. Your filling is too much if it starts spilling all over the place during this process. Dot crust lightly with butter if desired, sprinkle lightly with sugar. Repeat for all pie crust rounds. I got about 9 tartlettes out of mine, but varying proportions could stretch the number to 12.
Heat oven to 375ºF. Bake for approx 15 minutes or until lightly golden or until you see chocolate bubbling & burning (!). Transfer to cooling rack, let the ingredients solidify a little, 5-10 minutes.