So its week 2 of Summer Fest 2009, and we’re onto Fruit from Trees as the theme, and conicicently, I had a bunch of Rainier Cherries sitting in the fridge just waiting to be baked up into something yummy!

Summer Fest is a four-week, cross-blog celebration co-created (alphabetically listed) by A Way to Garden, Matt Armendariz of Mattbites, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, and Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple, with guest appearances from Shauna and Daniel Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, Simmer Till Done’s Marilyn Pollack Naron, and Paige Smith Orloff of The Sister Project.  (description courtesy of Mattbites)

So, without further ado, let the baking begin!

In addition to the cherries, hub also has been hankering for what he describes as “that pastry that tastes like cookies” also known as Pasta Frolla.   I opted to use a whole-grain white flour, milled by Saltspring Island Mills.  It is an excellent tasting product that is white in colour, but not bleached, as it comes from soft-white wheat.  The soft white wheat is also lower in gluten, so is perfect for pastries and cakes.  I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with it and have been really happy with the results!

I know lots of people like the sour cherries for cooking, but we don’t get a lot of them grown around here.  We do get lots of sweet cherries, and a smattering of the Rainier cherries, which I think are really pretty, and look a little bit like tiny nectarines.  I also like the flavour of the sweet cherries — they are the first tree fruit that we get here, and always make me think that summer is truly here.

I’ll just say now that I do pit my cherries.  Some people think that the pits add extra flavour, BUT, I wouldn’t want to break a tooth biting accidentally into a cherry pit   I use this little handheld cherry pitter, which takes a little more time, but goes pretty quickly once you get going.  I ended up spending about 15 mins extra pitting cherries for the tarts.

Pasta Frolla is the sweet Italian pastry that gets used for Crostata.  It’s buttery, but not as flaky as shortcrust.  It also contains quite of a bit of sugar, and some egg/egg yolk, and is a bit more forgiving than shortcrust.  It goes together REALLY quickly with a food processor, but isn’t too difficult to do by hand with a pastry blender.  I did this batch with the pastry blender, as I had been doing a lot of large scale baking recently, and was missing the quiet of working without kitchen power tools.

I cut large circles from the dough, and plopped them into muffin tins, and filled with cherry filling, and then baked until the filling bubbled up.  The cherry filling is fairly basic, punching up the flavour a bit, while still allowing the sweet cherry to shine through.

Ready to enjoy!

Rustic Ranier Cherry Tarts

• 1 recipe Pasta Frolla
• 6 cups Rainer Cherries, pitted
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 Tablespoon Grand Marnier
• 3 Tablespoons Tapioca starch

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine cherries with all remaining ingredients, and stir well to mix, until the sugar is mostly dissolved

Roll out the Pasta Frolla to 1/8 inch thick and cut out 4 1/2 to 5-inch circles.  Place circles in the cups of a muffin tin.

Spoon cherry filling into the pastry-lined cups, and top with a small circle of dough with any remaining.  The Pasta Frolla can be re-rolled up to 2x.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees, and bake for 15-20 minutes longer, until bubbling. (Make sure you put a pan under the tin to catch any drips!!!)

Let cool COMPLETELY in the tins, before removing.  Makes 10-12 rustic tarts

Pasta Frolla recipe (makes a large batch, extra can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days)

• 3 cups unbleached flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teapsoon baking powder
• 2 large egg yolks, whisked with:
• 2 Tablespoons heavy cream

Combine the dry ingredients, and cut in the butter the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, with a few larger pieces of butter (the size of small peas).  Mix in the butter/cream mixture until the pastry just holds together.  Add a bit more heavy cream if necessary.  Divide into two pieces, shape into flat discs, and let the dough rest for at least 30 mins in the fridge.