Cherry Lavender Tart
I wish I’d taken a picture of this we dug into it. It was so purty. But at least you get to see how flaky the crust was. It was my best crust ever. The reason? Lard, baby, lard. I usually use a fantastic, easy to use, all butter pate brisee recipe. I thought I was running low on butter and remembered I still had some lard in the fridge. I plan on using 1/2 lard, 1/2 butter from now on. This may sound arrogant, but I’ve never liked crust until I started making my own pies and tarts. Now I realize that it was probably because the crusts I had eaten previously weren’t so great.
I’m fortunate to have a wonderful butcher in my area, Sparrow Meat in Kerrytown. That’s where I got the beautifully pure, lucious lard of my dreams. See if you have a butcher in your area where you can obtain some good lard and then use this recipe for your next crust.
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 c. lard
1/4 c. butter
1 tsp. salt
Approx. 6 tbs. of ice cold water
Blend the dry ingredients. Cut in the lard and butter til you have pea sized lumps. Add the water and blend til the dough comes together. The less you handle the dough, the better. Roll it out and use it as you will. This freezes very well and I usually make a double batch and freeze half for future use.
The filling was also delicious. Sam brought home some Traverse City cherries that were good but needed a little goosing for flavor. My darling pitted the cherries for me with my tiny little olive/cherry pitter I bought years ago. I really need to get one of those pitters that handles a bunch of cherries at once. I put the cherries in a bowl (it was probably about a pound, more or less) and added a half cup of sugar and 2 tbls. of cornstarch to thicken up the juices a bit. Then it struck me that lavender would probably complement the cherries very well. So I went outside, cut off a couple of stalks, and stripped the unopened buds. I stirred it all up and let it sit, while I took care of the crust.
I knew I didn’t have enough pastry for a double crust pie, so I decided to roll it out and then lay it over the pie pan as I would for a regular pie. I poured the filling in and then simply gathered the excess crust and gently folded it around the filling, leaving about a 3 inch opening. I was too lazy to brush some cream to give it a nicely browned crust (It was in the downstairs fridge. Lazy, I tell you. Hey, at least I’m making the damn thing) Instead, I sprinkled some turbinado sugar. I had the oven quite hot for the the first 15 min. (425 d.) and then lowered it to 350 for another 30 min. My oven is a convection, so it’s about 25 % faster than a regular oven.
To tell the truth, I think lavender goes with pretty much any type of fruit. So give it try with any good fruit you have. I particularly love it with blueberries.