TARTINE DI CIOCCOLATA CON CILIEGIE or SMALL CHOCOLATE TARTS WITH CHERRIES

There are an almost infinite number of cherry trees around here where I live, unfortunately I don’t have access to that many and even more unfortunately some years there are few cherries but this year is not a bad one. Even our young cherry tree has yielded some of its red gold but it’s a real diva and makes itself really desired so I suspect that we will have to wait for some more years before we harvest more that 20 cherries.



I have made some small cherry tarts with chocolate crust that are quite tasty and above all they are summery because even if I sometimes find strawberries in the ‘dark’ season, I have so far never found any cherries so I enjoy eating them a lot right now.




TARTINE DI CIOCCOLATA CON CILIEGIE or SMALL CHOCOLATE TARTS WITH CHERRIES

The crust you find here.

The filling:

2 cherries cut in halves for each tart, I used small tart forms that are about 6-7 cm in diameter
Or
As many cherries as need for a big tart
20-30 cherries
2 dl water
3-4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
Pine nuts

- Make the crust.
- Take out the kernels of the cherries before you divide the ones you will put into the tarts or the pie.
- Do the same with the rest of the cherries but these you cut into small pieces and put into a small pan together with the sugar, the water and the lemon juice.
- Let it simmer for about 10 minutes, it has to become a bit syrupy. Mash the cherries a bit with a fork.
- Press out the crust evenly in the forms and spoon out a thin layer of the cherry mash into each tart form.
- Put the four cherries into each form, if they are larger you just use more cherries. Put some pine nuts in-between the cherry halves.
- Bake them for 15-20 minutes in a pre-heated oven (175° centigrades).