Chinese Wedding Tarts

These tarts highlight foraged Nanking cherries, which grow wild in Fort Tilden, NY, and ripen in late June. Nanking cherries are indigenous to northern China, but have been cultivated in the United States since the last 1800s (and thus, escaping and propagating via birds for just as long). They go by many names, in both English and Chinese - Nanking cherry, Manchu cherry, dwarf cherry, mountain cherry, hairy cherry - all of it suggestive of their hardy and wide-ranging character. You may know them by one of these names, but if you live somewhere they don’t grow, you can substitute with other sour cherries, red currants, or cranberries to achieve the same visual effect, though of course the flavor is irreplaceable. Nanking cherries, to me, are perfectly balanced between tart and sweet, cherry and plum. They’re lovely.

“Chinese Wedding Tart” refers to the vivid red and gold colors, and the fact that they’re lactose-free!

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CRUST: 1/2 cup almond flour, 1 cup AP flour, 1 stick butter, 1 egg, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt. This is enough for one 9-inch tart or 6ish small tartlets.

FOR THE CUSTARD: 1 block silken tofu, drained and dried on a paper towel, maple or agave syrup to taste, 1tsp vanilla extract (optional)

FOR THE TOPPING: 1 cup Nanking cherries, 1 Tbsp apple cider or other fruit vinegar, 3/4 tsp gelatin, osmanthus flowers, apricot preserves.

EQUIPMENT

Food processor or blender for the custard, tart tin(s), pastry brush

Make the crust:

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Incorporate butter in little pieces with your fingers, then with a whisk, until mixture is pebbly. Add beaten egg to the mixture and incorporate with fingers or chopsticks until dough comes together, adding up to 1 tbsp of water if needed. Press the dough into tart tins, prick the bottoms with a fork, and freeze for 30 min. Go straight from freezer to oven at 350F and bake until golden brown (35-40 min) or until you start smelling a strong toasted almond aroma. This step can be done a few days before - store baked tart shells at room temperature wrapped in plastic.

Make the custard:

Blend tofu and vanilla extract in food processor, adding maple syrup a little at a time until smooth and sweet to your liking. It will still taste slightly tofu-like at this point and have that gently tannic tofu mouthfeel, but I promise you won’t notice when you’re eating it in a complete bite with the crust and the cherry topping. Store covered in fridge until ready for assembly - the custard can last about 2 days this way.

Make the cherry gelee:

Bloom gelatin in 1/4 cup water for 10 minutes. Heat cherries and vinegar in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the cherries have broken down completely and all you see are the white pits. Whisk in gelatin mixture and strain to remove the pits and any lumpy bits. Let the mixture cool to room temperature (don’t put it in the fridge and forget about it, as the gelatin will set).

Assemble tart the day you plan to serve/eat:

Remove tart shells from the tins before assembly! This is extra important if your tins don’t have removable bottoms.

Heat a spoonful of apricot preserve and a spoonful of water for 20 seconds in a microwave, mix until you get a thick glaze. Using a pastry brush, brush the glaze onto your baked tart shells, creating a protective barrier for your custard. (You can use any kind of jam for this step, but apricot is the most color and flavor neutral). No soggy bottoms here!

Spoon the tofu custard into the tart shells to about 3/4 full and try to make the tops as flat as possible. Perfection is not needed.

Carefully spoon the cherry sauce over the custard until you have a smooth red sauce layer completely covering the whole tart with no white parts peeking through. Decorate with osmanthus flowers (to make a straight line out of flowers, cut a slit into a stiff piece of paper and use it as a stencil).

Chill the tarts in the fridge for a couple of hours, until the gelee has set. Serve with stack of empty red envelopes.