Cherries

I love cherries. They are one of my favourite fruits. As a kid I have spent many summers sitting up in the cherry tree, picking and eating. The coolest thing was to eat the cherry-pit as well...not so cool anymore.
Cherries can be sweet (left) or sour (right) in taste, and there are many variates of each sort.

Sweet cherries are meaty in texture, they are less juicy than the sour cherries and it is easy to remove the pit. It was these cherries I was eating up in the tree and even today I only eat them fresh, no baking here.

Sour cherries on the other hand are very juicy, dark red and it is bit harder to remove the pit. They are really sour and flavourful so these are the cherries for cooking and baking.

And when it come to the baking, cherries and almonds are the perfect match. So I decided to make my favourite almond cake, Spanish cake called Tarta de Santiago. It is made of equal parts of eggs, sugar, almond flour and flavouring, very simple and very delicious.
I also wanted to use strudel dough (my latest obsession) and so was this sour cherry cake born.

Sour cherry cake
serves 6
3 eggs
200 gr sugar ( I used mixture of muscovado and cane sugar)

200 gr ground almonds (I used toasted almonds)
200 gr sour cherries
1,5 tbsp amaretto liqueur

2 dl bread flour
pinch of salt
1,5 tbsp oil
about 5 tbsp warm water

2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp sugar (from those 200 gr above)
2 tbsp ground almonds (from those 200 gr above)

baking dish 25x15 cm (1,3l)

Make the strudel dough , divide in 5 equal parts and let it rest for one hour. In the mean time pit the cherries. When the strudel dough has rested stretch each part individually. Brush the baking dish with melted butter and cover the bottom with one strudel sheet. Brush the sheet with melted butter and sprinkle some of the sugar and ground almonds over it.

Repeat until you have used all the strudel sheets. Do not sprinkle any sugar and almonds on the last sheet.

Preheat the oven, 180C. Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy and light in colour. Add amaretto and ground almonds. Blend carefully until everything is incorporated. Pour over the strudel layers, spread cherries over the almond filling and bake for about 30 minutes. Cute when cold. It tastes even better the next day.