Gluten free Crème Brûlée Tart with Black Cherries

Today I am happy to share with you the recipe of my mum’s birthday cake this year topped with Italian crème brûlée and black cherries. My brother is the genius pastry chef at home, I am along for the ride, helping him here and there and learning in the making. In the last years he has taught me so much and I am very happy when I can learn, improve my skills and make new recipes alone.

This recipe is simple and the result is so delicious. If you are no celiac or gluten intolerant, you can also use a good wheat flour instead of rice. And if you have more dough left after you’ve made the cake, please wrap it up again, put it in the fridge and enjoy making biscuits the day after.

I do hope you enjoy this recipe and cake, as much as we did.

INSTRUCTIONS

For the shortcrust pastry:

In a food processor with a leaf hook, add the cold butter, the sugar, the flour, the salt, cinnamon and the lemon zest. Mix at low speed until you reach a sand-like consistency. This technique is called “sabbiatura” in Italian. You can also use your hands if you don’t have a food processor. Add the eggs and keep mixing. When the dough comes together, it is ready. Put the shortcrust pastry dough in a wrap and put it to chill in the fridge for half a day or a whole night, depending on your time.

Now let’s take the shortcrust pastry out of the fridge.

On a kitchen work table put one sheet of greaseproof paper, add some flour and then the shortcrust pastry dough. Add some flour on the pastry as well and put another sheet of greaseproof paper on top of it. Start  rolling out the pastry dough until it gets 5 mm thick. If the pastry gets too sticky along the way, add more flour. Place it in a tart or pie pan. Prick with a fork all over, and flute the edges. Add the cherry jam all over the surface. If you end up with some pastry left, you can keep it in the fridge and make some nice biscuits the day after.

For the Italian version of a crême brûlée:

Pour the milk in a saucepan over low heat along with the vanilla pod (we’ve taken the beans out previously) and the skin of one organic lemon. whisk gently.

In a large bowl, beat the yolks with the vanilla beans and the sugar until it becomes airy. Add the potato starch and mix it all well.

Bring the milk to simmer, remove the vanilla pod and the lemon skin. Add the mixture from the bowl and whisk it gently until you get a cream-like consistency. It will take a few minutes. Turn the heat off. Pour the cream on the shortcrust pastry and then out it in a pre-heated static oven at 200 C for 1à minutes and at 180C for 30 minutes (check it regularly as the cooking time may vary according to the power of your oven).

Cool it down completely before serving.