Christmas Star Cherry Tart with Cinnamon Honey Roasted Macadamia IceCream

 

Seriously, YAY for Christmas!

I love Christmas. It's my favourite time of the year. I think I can thank my mum for that. I love the building anticipation of the season, the parties, the gifts - both giving and receiving - and of course...the food! I have a little tradition in my house which I call 'Four Weeks of Christmas Baking'. Which is just what it sounds like, four Christmas bakes for each week of December. I've done it every year for the past few years but this is the first year I'll be able to share it on my blog! Cos this is the first year I've had a blog...that's how time works.

Perfection.

I'm really proud of this one, I drew inspiration from the Australian summer and decided to use one of my favourite fruits - the magnificent cherry! Who doesn't like cherries? Crazy people, that's who. You know I'm talking to you. You crazy. But for the rest of us sane people, summer and Christmas in Australia is big, shiny bowls of cherries. They're so festive and look just like Christmas tree ornaments. I bet you actually could decorate a Christmas tree with just cherries! It would look beautiful!
 

The star of the show, front and centre.

This Christmas Star Cherry Tart with Cinnamon Honey Roasted Macadamia Ice Cream is the perfect dessert to take to a family get together. It may be a little time consuming, what with needing to pit 750g of cherries but it's not difficult to bring together.
 

The wonderful task of rubbing in the butter. Use your fingertips to rub the cool butter into the flour.

 

This is what they mean when they say it should look like breadcrumbs. Doesn't really look like breadcrumbs in my opinion, but I suppose you can see it at a stretch.

For the shell, I used the old reliable shortcrust pastry I use for all my pies and tarts. I also added a generous dash of cinnamon. Because we all know, cinnamon = Christmas! On a side note, I've spent the last few months looking for a really good Christmas candle and I have to tell you, the cinnamon Christmas Bliss candle from Sunny and Fair is amazing! Anyway, the pastry is a wonderfully short pasty, meaning its very buttery and crumbly. The cinnamon is subtle but really goes well with the filling and gives it a festive lift.
 

Fancy photo collage. I've gone all pro.

I love the feeling of rubbing the butter into the flour. It's fun to use your hands and get a bit messy! This is a rich shortcrust so there are also egg yolks in this pastry.

It's always fun to use cookie cutters!

With the leftover pastry, I made little stars to sit atop the cherries. Because I wanted to keep the cherries plump and fresh, to really take advantage of the season, I baked them separately then placed them on top.

Before the cherries go on...

And after! This is with the glaze too. It's really pretty just like this!

With a lot of cherry tarts, it seems to be the done thing to put an almond filling underneath the cherries but I wanted to give this a modern twist so I decided to put a layer of slightly sweetened mascarpone underneath. The tartness of the cherries matches perfectly with the creamy mascarpone.
 

Roughly chopping the yummy roasted macadamias...make sure you roast a few extra to eat on their own!

Such a good way to tart up some store bought ice cream! See what I did there? Tart it up? And we're making a tart? Ahhh classic.

Another trick I gave the tart was a layer of jam on the bottom of the pastry case. I didn't quite know if it would add anything to it or if it would in fact take away from the fresh cherries but I'm really glad I tried it as it does add another dimension to the flavours.

Ta da! So pretty.

In my mind when I was dreaming this tart up, I was thinking of the wonderfully shiny fruit tarts you see in the windows of bakeries. A glaze made of the aforementioned jam with a little hot water and lemon juice will give the tart a lovely shine. With this shine, this tart is ready to be your table centrepiece.
 

See the jam on the bottom there?

The ice cream sends the cherry tart to another level. It's like going from the week before Christmas to smack bang right in the middle of the big day with Santa Claus scooping big mounds of this amazing ice cream right on top of your slice of cherry tart.
 

Perfect combo.

Altogether these elements make the perfect cherry tart for Christmas day or any other day when you can get your hands on some lovely cherries! Please join me in my Four Weeks of Baking, I'd love to see what you come up with or if you give one my recipe a go, make sure you share it with me on Instagram or Facebook!

And now the photos...

Delicious!

Delightful Tart!

Like my styling? Yeah boi!

Yummy.

Have a look at the weeks of Christmas Baking:

Week 2 of Four Weeks of Christmas Baking: Raspberry Jam Drops
Week 3 of Four Weeks of Christmas Baking: Rum Ball Trifle
Week 4 of Four Weeks of Christmas Baking: Eggnog Cake

Christmas Cherry Tart with Cinnamon Honey Roasted Macadamia Ice Cream

Prep time: 40 mins

Cooking time: 35 mins

Total time:  1 hr 15 mins plus freezing time for ice cream

 

Servings: 12

 
Cinnamon Honey Roasted Macadamia Ice Cream
1 litre good quality vanilla ice cream
150g raw macadamias
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup honey
60g butter
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Pastry
2 cups plain flour
120g butter, cold and chopped roughly

2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons caster sugar, plus extra
2 teaspoons cinnamon, plus extra
Cold water to mix
Filling
4 tablespoons strawberry jam
375g mascarpone
3 tablespoons icing sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons hot water
 
Cinnamon Honey Roasted Macadamia Ice Cream

1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Take ice cream out of freezer and put in fridge to soften.
3. Place the macadamias in a single layer on a lined tray and place in preheated oven.
4. Bake until golden, 5 - 10 mins. Keep a close eye on the macadamias as they have a high fat content and they will brown very quickly.
5. Remove from oven to cool.
6. Combine the caster sugar, honey, butter and cinnamon in a small saucepan and gently simmer on low to medium heat for 5 mins
7. Pour the honey mix over the nuts and stir to combine.
8. Keep turning nuts over in mix as they cool. Glaze will stick better to nuts as it cools.
9. Allow to completely cool then chop roughly.
10. Place into a large bowl then add ice cream and combine well.
11. Return to freezer to re-set.

 Pastry and Stars

1. Sift flour into a bowl then add butter and use your fingertips to 'rub' the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the sugar and cinnamon then make a well in the centre.
3. Add the egg yolks into the well and pull the flour in. Once the egg yolks are mixed, knead gently. Add cold water as required to get the pastry to bond, around 2-3 tablespoons.
4. The pastry is done when it will roll into a ball and hold. It will be crumbly and stiff.
5. Roll into a ball and place into the fridge for 10 minutes to rest.
6. Roll the pastry out with a rolling pin to fit a 25cm loose bottom tart tin.
7. Using the rolling pin to lift the pasty, place over the tin and use off cuts to cover the bottom and sides.
8. Blind bake the pastry (place a piece of baking paper onto the pastry and weigh down with baking beans or dried split peas or rice) for 20 mins or until lightly golden then allow to cool slightly.
9. Meanwhile, re-roll out the rest of pastry and cut out stars using a cookie cutter, around 13 - 15 and place on a lined tray.
10. Sprinkle  generously with extra caster sugar and cinnamon then refrigerate until the case has baked.
11. Bake stars for 10 mins or until edges are lightly golden.

 Cherry filling

1. While pastry case is still warm, spread 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam onto the base of the case.
2. Combine the mascarpone and icing sugar with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and mix until combined then set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, combine the remaining jam with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and the hot water and gently simmer until it forms a liquid glaze.
4. Once the pastry shell has completely cooled, spread the mascarpone mix on top of the jam.
5. Place the pitted cherries onto the mascarpone in a circle, starting from the outside in.
6. Use a pastry brush to generously glaze the cherries, then place the cinnamon stars on top. Serve with ice cream.