Custard tart with amarena

Ingredients

1. The crust
2. The custard
3. Candied sour cherries, preferably Amarena Fabbri

For the glaze:

1. 10 ml milk
2. Granulated sugar, to taste

Procedure

1. Make the crust
2. Separate into two discs, one slightly larger than the other, and refrigerate for a couple of hours, or freeze for up to 20 minutes
3. Meanwhile, make the custard and let it set at room temperature. Since it will be baked, it won’t need to be fully chilled
4. Before assembling, strain the desired number of cherries. Ideally 20 to 40 depending on the size of the baking dish

Speaking of the size of the baking dish

I’d normally use a 17.5x28 cm (aka 7x11 in) dish and roll out the crust at 8 mm for the bottom and 6 mm for the top. But I’ve also inadvertently experimented with the 22.5x33 cm (aka 9x13 in) dish, in which case I had to roll out the crust at 4 mm for the bottom and 2 mm for the top—it barely covers the whole thing, and might need some patching up, but the result is rewarding, with the crust being a thin vessel for the filling. You can also size up the crust recipe a tiny bit—but you do the math.

Assembly

Note that this bake starts with a cold oven.

1. Line the baking dish with parchment paper
2. Roll out one of the disks of dough into a shape that can cover the bottom and sides of your baking dish
3. Carefully place it over the parchment and adjust it to the bottom and sides of the dish
4. Roll out the other disk into a shape that can cover the top of the tart. If needed, refrigerate it for a few minutes on a sheet of parchment to facilitate the transfer onto the tart
5. Fill the bottom crust with custard
6. Place the desired number of cherries onto the custard to ensure proper diffusion. Push each cherry into the custard
7. Place the top crust on top of the tart, then fold the edges of the bottom crust over it to seal it. Try to avoid leaving air bubbles inside the tart
8. Brush the top with milk, then sprinkle with sugar
9. Put the baking dish into the oven, on the middle rack, and set the oven to 180° with convection. If using a static oven, set it to 200°C and lower it to 180°C after it’s reached the temperature
10. Bake for 40 minutes, until the top is light gold
11. Let it cool completely before serving