Tiny Chocolate Cherry Bomb

My go-to chocolate tarte is French (of course) and gets served often throughout the year, and in summer it pairs especially well with lemon.  But since it’s cherry season now, I am incorporating fresh and baked cherries into many of our foods, so why not the chocolate tartes?

Sometimes I make a full size tarte, but usually it’s the minis, as the ratio of crust to filling is a good one and my family loves to eat bite-sized desserts, before dinner.  I use French-made tins, which are fluted and just shy of 2 1/2” in diameter at their widest at the top.   I have been using the fleur de sel from the Paris President Wilson market for my baking lately, and I can really taste the difference it makes in things like this shortbread crust over the salt I usually use for baking, from Camargue.  To make the tartes, follow the crust recipe HERE, and roll out your dough after it’s been chilled.  Using a round cookie cutter (or like me, a glass sized slightly larger than your pastry tins), cut out the circles of dough and coax them into the tins.  Next time I have help at home I will take some photos of this….taking photos with flour-covered hands is a no-no….so pas de photo of this step.  The crust gets partially baked, just until it starts to turn a little golden.  And since I knew these would get baked with the filling for just a few minutes, I let them get about 75% baked.  Fill each crust with the chocolate filling, the printable recipe is HERE; then drop a pitted cherry into the middle of each.  Drop the cherries in on their sides, so that you see just the rounded sides of the fruit.

Bake at 375 for about 5-8 minutes; the key is to watch these like a hawk and not let them over-bake.  Just remember to take them out while the chocolate is still trembling just a little. If you take them out on time, the chocolate will be firm yet creamy.  Overbake and it will be more like fudge.  Either way your guests will love it, but try for the creamier texture.

Let cool a little, then dust with powdered sugar.  Chocolate and cherries, a fantastic food combination.  And this is just a great little bomb of cherry in the middle of the velvety chocolate, cool cream and the aftertaste of the salty shortbread crust~

I made a single recipe of crust and a half recipe of filling last night, which yielded eight small tartes, a generous plate of pastry scraps that were also cooked, and a cup of extra filling, which is still in the refrigerator.  I served them still warm as I think they taste best this way.  I added a spoon of fresh cream on the top, and composed a plate for each of my parents, like this~

One for me, seven for them.  Parents LOVED this, and they ate all the pastry scraps too.  The filling was warm and a little creamy, just perfect; the cherry was also warm but still had enough of its fresh taste.  I’m going to make more of these for the Fourth, and probably another batch this weekend.  I’m styling the table decor for an event for several hundred guests on Saturday night, and Sunday taking a rare day to stay home and hope to style some tabletop for a pre-Fourth party.  I love this plate above and will use it for food styling: Red White and Blue.  And Yummy.

Enjoy your weekend and hope you find something delicious to eat along the way~