Le Temps des Cerises

Who would have thought that one cherry tree could yield so much?
Every day I pick buckets of fruit- and still there is 100 times that left on the tree!

So many cherries..so little time!

What to do with them all?

Well, I've made batch after batch of cherry jam of course. Then cherry jellies-

Cherry jelly

Cherry juice for morning breakfast (reputedly good for gout!)-

Cherry juice

Cherrry compote (slow cooked with red wine and a tablespoon of icing sugar) for swirling onto ice cream..

Cherry compote ready for slow cooking

or layering onto chocolate cake with a dollop of chocolate mousse to make a Black Forest Express

All aboard the Black Forest Express

Spiced boozy cherries (with cinnamon and sugar, bottled in eau de vie)

Simmered with cinnamon and icing sugar

Boozy bottled cherries

I've floated them in jugs of Pimms..

Cherry o'clock

I've given them away to friends, neighbours and strangers alike.

Ouf! I'm running out of ideas. 

One last one though...Tarte Aux Cerises

You will need:

1 quantity of sweet pastry made by blitzing 225g of plain flour with 110g soft butter and 80g of icing sugar with 1 large egg in the food processor.

Cherries 

200 ml of either chocolate mousse, vanilla frosting or crème patissière

Jam to glaze

1. Make the pastry as above and press into a flan dish.

Ready for baking blind

2. Bake at 170 degrees until lightly golden all over.

3. Allow to cool completely then spread on your filling of choice.

4. De-stone the cherries and soften them a little by microwaving ( or simmering) for a very short time with a little icing sugar. (Microwaving helps preserve the colour).

5. Arrange the fruit on your flan base.

6. Melt some jam ( I used cherry of course, but strawberry or bramble or other red fruit would be fine) and glaze the surface of the fruit usng a pastry brush.

Glaze with red jam

Et voilà!

Tarte aux Cerises

And by the way- I'm sure you've all guessed what you're getting for Christmas this year!