Cherries for Christmas

The past 2 Christmas's I've made this Burnt Butter Cherry Almond Torte by Karen Martini....

I don't add the almond essence and it seems to go down well - often inducing a 2nd serve.

This Christmas I paid $50/kg for cherries - call me crazy but I was worried about the standard of cherries at the supermarket.

Ingredients

180 g salted butter

1 vanilla bean

5 egg whites

pinch salt

340 g pure icing sugar, sifted

110g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1 x 5ml teaspoon almond essence (optional)

40g flaked almonds

300g cherries, pitted and halved

Creme fraiche to serve.

Preheat oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan-forced). Grease a 24cm x 5cm fluted tart tin with a loose base (I don't have a flan tin so use a spring loaded cake tin).

Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape the beans out and place in a small saucepan. Finely slice the vanilla bean and also add to the small saucepan. Melt butter in the saucepan and cook over a medium heat for 4 -5 mins until the mixture turns dark and smells nutty.

Pour into a bowl and cool to room temperature. Remove some of the vanilla slivers and reserve for garnish.

Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Add half icing sugar and combine, then fold in the remaining sugar, flour and ground almonds.

Stir through the burnt vanilla butter and almond essence. Pour mixture into the tin and place cherries on top, scatter with almond flakes, reserve a few cherries for garnish if you wish.

Bake for 1 hour, or until the tart is puffed and just set. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.