Recipe

Cherry Almond Torte

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Recipe
1 Question

Photo by Rivka

This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Recipe for Cherries
A&M's Testing Notes: I couldn't find sour cherries, so I used much sweeter and less tangy dark sweet cherries, which may have defeated the purpose of a sour cherry torte but still resulted in a fabulous dessert...
I couldn't find sour cherries, so I used much sweeter and less tangy dark sweet cherries, which may have defeated the purpose of a sour cherry torte but still resulted in a fabulous dessert that I'd make over and over again. Rivka sent me a note that depending on my oven, the torte could be done in 30 minutes, rather than an hour, so I kept my eye on it. It baked up, golden and beautiful, in about 45 minutes. The almond-scented dough and the gooey fruit were the perfect match for a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a cup of coffee. I can't wait to find sour cherries and make this again! - Loves Food Loves to Eat

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Chef
Rivka's Notes: This torte is my new go-to sour cherry dessert. The filling is like tart jam: not too sugary, and not at all runny, thanks to cooking it down a fair amount before adding the cornstarch...
This torte is my new go-to sour cherry dessert. The filling is like tart jam: not too sugary, and not at all runny, thanks to cooking it down a fair amount before adding the cornstarch. The crust, made with part almond flour, is reminiscent of linzer torte. It’s rich and flavorful, but only faintly sweet. It’s a bit more crumbly than pie crust — and, admittedly, a bit harder to work with — but sweet and tangy cherries sandwiched between two layers of this crust is like a grown-up, more sophisticated thumbprint cookie, and worth the effort. - Rivka

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Serves about 10

For the crust:

3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter Ask a question about this ingredient

2 cups flour Ask a question about this ingredient

2/3 cups almond flour Ask a question about this ingredient

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar Ask a question about this ingredient

1 large egg, slightly beaten Ask a question about this ingredient

1 teaspoon vanilla Ask a question about this ingredient

1/2 teaspoon salt Ask a question about this ingredient

2 teaspoons lemon zest Ask a question about this ingredient

For the cherry filling:

2 pounds fresh sour cherries, rinsed and pitted Ask a question about this ingredient

3 tablespoons unsalted butter Ask a question about this ingredient

3/4 cups sugar Ask a question about this ingredient

3 tablespoons cornstarch Ask a question about this ingredient

2 teaspoons lemon juice Ask a question about this ingredient

In the bowl of a food processor (recommended) or stand mixer (works too), beat together butter and 1/3 cup sugar at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat or mix egg into butter mixture, then add vanilla and mix to incorporate. Reduce speed to low and mix in flour, almond flour, salt, and zest until mixture just comes together to form a dough.
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Halve dough and form each half into a disk. Wrap disks in plastic and chill until firm, at least 1 hour, more if the weather is warm. (Dough softens quickly, and can be quite sticky; if dough gets soft at any point, a 20-minute stint in the fridge will make it more workable.)
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Meanwhile, make filling: heat 3 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium heat until foam subsides, then add cherries with juices and sugar and simmer, stirring, until sugar dissolves. (Cherries will exude more juices.) Transfer a couple tablespoons of the cherry mixture from the pan into a small bowl, and add cornstarch, whisking to form a thick paste. Continue to simmer cherry mixture until cherries are tender but not falling apart, about 8 minutes. Then stir cornstarch mixture into simmering cherries and boil, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Transfer filling to a heat-safe bowl and put in fridge.
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Put a large baking sheet in middle of oven and preheat to 375°F.
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While cherries are cooling, remove one piece of dough from fridge and roll out between 2 sheets of floured wax paper into a 12-inch disk. Remove top sheet of paper and invert dough into 9-inch tart pan. Trim overhanging dough so edge of crust lies flush with edge of tart pan. Prick shell with fork several times to dock in pan, then bake about 15 minutes (no need to weigh it down; it will puff slightly, but when you add filling it’ll shrink back into pan), then remove and set on counter. Spread cooled filling evenly in tart shell.
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Roll out second half of dough on floured workspace without wax paper to 12-inch disk, then use cookie cutter to cut scalloped circles (or other fun shapes) out of dough. Top cherry filling with dough cut-outs in overlapping pattern. Sprinkle remaining tablespoon sugar over top layer of dough.
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Transfer torte in tart pan onto baking sheet in oven until pastry is golden and filling is bubbling, about 1 hour. Cool completely in pan on a rack, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, to allow juices to thicken. Serve warm or at room temperature. A scoop of vanilla ice cream would really put it over the edge.
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10 Comments on Cherry Almond Torte

mjlandry added 10 months ago

This looks amazing. I am def. going to make this:-)

PFossil added 10 months ago

Made this last night. It's gorgeous, and so delicious! I did the top crust with star shapes for the 4th of July. We were lucky to get sour cherries from the Greenmarket. And Rivka, we must have the same kind of oven, because my torte was done, done, done in about 40 minutes.

Rivka added 10 months ago

PFossil, I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe! I, too, made it (serving at dinner tomorrow night), and was reminded about how much I love both sour cherries and this tart.

Ordinary Blogger (Rivki Locker) added about 1 year ago

OOOOH, this sounds wonderful and I LOVE your photo. I've already bookmarked this recipe so it'll be ready and waiting in my recipe box for the summer. Sigh.... Summer is SO far off.

Rivka added about 1 year ago

i know, sad that summer is so far away! this is one of my favorite ways to use cherries. Now I'm eager for summer too!

Rivka added about 1 year ago

Apparently my oven runs VERY cold..this tart only took 35 minutes in my mom's oven. Go figure!