Twin Peaks had such a huge impact on my life – I had already seen The elephant man, but it was Twin Peaks that hooked me into David Lynch’s universe, which I have never left afterwards. It is a brilliant show, I consider it a very long film broken down in pieces, especially The return. So it was about time I made a tribute to my all time favorite series, especially since food plays such an important role in TP.
I made a cherry tart, rather than a pie, because I wanted to put my spin on it! It was so good agent Dale Cooper would have said “This must be where pies go when they die.”
This tart has:
- A vegan sweet shortcrust pastry with almond flour
- A gooey cherry layer
- An almond crunch layer
- A silky cherry cream filling
- A vanilla cream filling
- A black lodge inspired decoration with fresh cherries 🙂
Ingredients and Procedure:
Sweet shortcrust pastry
300g flour
140g vegan butter, cold and cubed
40g water
2g salt
40g almond flour
100g icing sugar
Combine the flour and the vegan butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Then, add the salt, almond flour and sugar and mix well before adding the water and quickly bringing together the dough. Do not overwork it otherwise it will not be light and crunchy and so pleasant to eat. Flatten in a disc and wrap in cling film, or a reusable ziplock bag (my favor option!). Let rest for at least 1h, then roll out, cover the tin without stretching the pastry, poke holes with a fork and freeze for 30’ before baking. I did not use a ring for this one because I needed more depth, so when I rolled out my pastry and placed it on the tin, I left some extra pastry around the edges and I cut the extra pastry after the first 15’ of baking – this helps avoid having to deal with pastry shrinkage (which you can prevent by following all the tips I gave but will always happen, to a certain extent).
Blind bake at 170C fan, 15 minutes with the baking beans in, 15 minutes without – or until golden brown.
Cherry filling 1
500g frozen cherries
2g NH pectin
1/2 cup brown sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
Cook the cherries and when defrosted add the pectin, the sugar, the lemon zest and juice. Let simmer for 15-20minutes. Use a sieve to filter the juice and reserve it.
Spread the cherries on the pre-baked tart shell.
Almond crunch
50g flaked almonds
1tbsp maple syrup
1tbsp glucose syrup
1tbsp caster sugar
Preheat fan oven at 170C. Mix the sugar and syrups in a saucepan and when the mixture reaches an amber color through in the almonds. Let the almonds coat with the syrup and then spread on a silpat or baking paper and bake in the oven for 10 minutes, checking around 5-7 (it all depends on the oven!). Remove from oven, let cool and then break into pieces and lay it over the cherries – it will add flavor, crunch and it will also help having neater cream layers.
Cherry filling2
200ml coconut milk (full fat)
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp agar agar powder
Juice from the cooked cherries (approx 150g), strained
Warm the milk and juice and then pour over the cornstarch in another bowl, whisking with a balloon whisk to combine. Return to the stove and cook until the mixture thickens, then add the agar agar and keep cooking until the mixture reaches 90C – if you do not have a thermometer, it has to be close to a simmer, so the agar is properly activated.
Pour over the cherries and almond crunch and let set in the fridge for at least 30-45 minutes before pouring the vanilla cream layer.
Vanilla cream layer
200ml coconut milk (full fat)
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp agar agar powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
Use the same procedure as for the cherry filling.
Pour on the set cherry cream and let set for 4h.
To decorate: I used a skewer to draw the zigzag pattern I wanted to follow, then I cut some fresh cherries in 6 or 8 parts and used the segments to follow the pattern I previously carved 🙂 et voila!
Miri's Cake Files 