CROSTATA DI AMARETTI, CREMA E AMARENE

Ingredients for short pastry

300 g of flour
150 g of soft butter
100 g of fine or granulated sugar
1 medium egg
1 medium yolk
1 teaspoon of baking powder (about 4-5 g)
grated peel of half a lemon

Ingredients for custard

500 ml of whole milk
100 g of caster sugar
4 egg yolks
40 g of cornstarch
grated lemon or vanilla peel
+ amaretti around 10-12 cookies
sour cherry
liqueur to taste

Process for short pastry

If you use a mixer: Add the butter and flour, operate the mixer until you get a sandy mixture.
Then add all the other ingredients and work for about 40 seconds the time needed to mix them all. Be careful not to heat the pastry with the blades too much.
When all the ingredients have blended, work lightly with your hands, close it in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30-40 minutes.

Handmade process for shortcrust pastry

Place the flour on a pastry board, add grated lemon or vanilla peel.
Add the cold butter into small pieces.
Work the mixture, rubbing your hands, the passage must be very fast.
Then form a fountain creating a hole in the center, add the icing sugar, baking powder, egg yolk and egg.
Work the mixture until a homogeneous and elastic dough is obtained.
Store in the refrigerator wrapped in food foil for about an hour.

Composition of amaretti tart, cream and sour cherries

Meanwhile, prepare the custard, the process can be found by clicking here
Let the custard cool down and in the meantime compose the tart of amaretti, cream and sour cherries.
Take the shortcrust pastry from the fridge, divide the dough in half. Roll out a part of the dough on a lightly floured pastry board. Then transfer this base into a buttered pie tin with a diameter of 24 cm in diameter. Prick with a fork slightly across the bottom.
Add the cherries in syrup on the bottom and add a little of their syrup with a small brush. As an alternative you can add as a base a cherry jam or cherries the one you prefer. Add just a few crumbled amaretto without exaggerating because then there will also be on the surface.
Add the custard that you have previously prepared and leveled for good.
After adding the cream, add the slightly wet amaretti in the liqueur across the surface, I used the Strega liqueur but you can use what you prefer, such as Maraschino, Alchermes, Marsala. Quickly wet the amaretti cookies or as I did I used only a small brush.
Put aside, take the other short pastry and roll it out on a lightly floured pastry board. In this case you will have to stretch it as thin as possible without breaking it in order to have a very nice surface effect.
Cover well and close all edges well.
Cook the tart of amaretti, cream and black cherries in a static oven at 180 ° for about 40 minutes. The surface will have to brown, so check often because times vary from oven to oven.
Remove the tart of amaretti, cream and sour cherries and let it cool completely before removing it from the pan.
Once the necessary time has passed, gently shake it, add plenty of icing sugar to the surface and serve.

Video courtesy of Ho Voglia di Dolce