Cherry Bakewell Tartlets With Fresh Summer Cherries

Method

1. Heat the oven to 170°C, conventional rather than fan. The cases are already baked, and a fan browns their rims well before the frangipane has set in the middle.
2. Sit the twelve cases in a mini muffin tin. They weigh almost nothing, and on a flat tray one that tips is one that pours.
3. Beat the butter and caster sugar together for two minutes, until paler and light. There is only 60g in the bowl, so a wooden spoon is enough.
4. Beat in the half egg, a little at a time. It will look split for a moment. Add the almond meal, flour, salt and almond extract, and it comes back together as a soft paste.
5. Put half a teaspoon of conserve in the base of each case and spread it flat with the back of the spoon. Left in a heap in the middle it boils up through the frangipane and over the side.
6. Spoon the frangipane in, one level teaspoon a case, filling each just over half. It rises as it bakes and settles back as it cools, and a case filled to the rim will dome over the edge.
7. Press one cherry half into each, cut side down, until the frangipane closes around it. Scatter the flaked almonds if you are using them.
8. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until the frangipane is golden, set to the centre and springs back when pressed. The cherry will have sunk slightly and the rims will be a shade darker than they started.
9. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then lift them onto a rack for another 20. Straight from the oven the frangipane is fragile and the case is at its most brittle.
10. Sit a fresh cherry half on each, stuck down with a dab of conserve loosened in a few drops of hot water.
11. Dust with icing sugar as the tray leaves the kitchen, or ice them instead: 2 tablespoons of icing sugar with half a teaspoon of water, thick enough to sit still, left ten minutes to skin over.

Where these go wrong

Three things, each with its own tell. Jam over the sides means it went in as a heap rather than a layer, or by the teaspoon rather than the half. A tartlet welded to the tin means it was overfilled and the frangipane set over the rim. A pale, slightly sunken middle means they came out early, and unlike a cake there is no penalty for putting them back for three more minutes.

Two days, at cool room temperature

Baked tartlets keep two days in an airtight container on the bench, and the second day is the better one, once the almond has settled and tastes of more than butter. Keep them out of the fridge. Cold makes the pastry damp and flattens the almond. Add the fresh cherry and any icing on the day.

Questions about cherry Bakewell tartlets

What is the difference between a Bakewell tart and a cherry Bakewell?

The tart is the original: shortcrust, jam, frangipane, flaked almonds, served plain. The cherry Bakewell is the iced version, a bakery format with white water icing and a glacé cherry on top. Same three layers underneath. This recipe sits between them, with fresh cherries doing the work of the glacé one and the icing left as a choice.

Can you bake in ready-made pastry cases?

Yes, as long as the filling is what needs the heat. These cases are fully baked already, so the oven is there to set the frangipane rather than to cook pastry: 170°C, conventional, 16 to 18 minutes, and out when the filling is set rather than when the shell looks done. Fillings that need longer than 20 minutes, or a hotter oven than 180°C, will take the rims too far.

What can I use instead of fresh cherries?

Anything that holds its shape in 18 minutes of heat. Halved apricots, sliced plum, raspberries and blackberries all work, and stone fruit is the closest match for the almond. Frozen cherries are fine if you thaw them on paper towel and pat them dry, since the water they release pools on the frangipane. Our Anzac biscuit crumble over roasted stone fruit uses the same fruit at the other end of the effort scale.

Keep a pack of the 40mm sweet cases in the cupboard and this is a dessert you can decide on the same afternoon. They sit with the rest of the Confiletas range in our tarts and pastry shells, five shapes at the one price, and if you would rather send something sweet than bake it, the Christmas hampers are packed by hand. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post.