Ready for a picnic over here! Now I just need some sunshine. # 339: Cherry Tahini Tart

I know it’s not quite cherry season yet, but frozen cherries were calling my name this week!

When thinking through the filling, I debated a dark chocolate layer (surprise surprise) to cut the jam’s sweetness. I landed instead on tahini in all it’s nutty glory, unintentionally making this tart a fancier older sibling to my tahini pb&j pop-tarts. Oops!

While tasting similar, this tart has a bigger filling to crust ratio, feeling more like a full tart rather than a hand pie. Plus, she got all dolled up with black sesame freckles and jam polka dots!

Cherry jam and dark chocolate (maybe with cacao nibs mixed in somehow?) are definitely happening in the near future. Can’t be stopped.

Excuse my sleepy night-before crust prep. You can find the crust recipe here!

I added the black sesame seeds at the last moment so they would stay whole for a visual effect.

Voilà it’s the next day! Kitchen magic.

Didn’t make quuuiiiite enough dough for the walls, so it became a shorter, more compact tart. The corgi of tarts, if you will.

The original plan was to cut letters into the crust to spell “cherry” or “spring” but gravity and cursive cookie cutters nixed that real fast. Polka dots it is!

Crossing my fingers it’ll look cute once baked, and less like a piece of swiss cheese.

The filling is essentially jam plus cornstarch and butter. Because viscosity and why not, respectively.

• 3/4 pound pitted cherries (I used a handful of strawberries to get to the right weight when I ran out of cherries. Continuing with the flexibility theme of this bake)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

This is a riff on the filling recipe from my cherry hand pies, and the original recipe author had a great tip: mix the cornstarch with a little bit of the cherry juice once the fruit starts to cook down before adding it in to the jam. It makes sure the cornstarch mixes in fully – nobody wants cornstarch clumps. *shudder*

I also mixed toasted sesame seeds and honey into the tahini on a whim. (Now crossing my toes along with my fingers that this turns out.)

Into the oven she goes! I painted the top with cream instead of an egg wash, since I have an excess of it right now. Gotta go make cream scones, brb.

Why can’t you hide while wearing polka dots?

.

You’ll always be spotted. *ba-dum-shhhhh*

Crispy flaky yes please.

Obligatory Pac-Man picture.

Happy munching!