It is cherry season and we are going to celebrate with some delicious cherry tarts! Are you excited? These are so tasty. The cherry tarts are gluten-free, and they are vegan, but you’d never know because they are sure to delight anyone. Fresh dark cherries and summer, yep that’s what I’m talkin about.

Rich homemade cherry jam in the center of a sweet cookie tart, it’s dreamlike. Get your fun apron on and start baking. This is what life’s all about. Celebrate sweetness, and be sure to pass them around, you’ll make friends for life.

Gluten-Free Sweet Cherry Tarts

Yields: 24 tarts

Ingredients:

Cherry Filling (yields ¾ cup jam):

1 generous cup dark cherries, pitted

2 Tbsp. lemon juice, approximately juice from ½ a lemon

½ cup cane sugar

Cookie Tarts:

1 cup gluten-free all-purpose baking flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp. sea salt

½ cup vegan butter substitute, + 1 tsp. for greasing pan (I used Earth Balance Organic Whipped Buttery Spread)

½ cup cane sugar

1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

You Will Also Need:

1 mini muffin pan

Directions:

Cherry Filling:

In a medium saucepan combine pitted cherries, lemon juice and cane sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently breaking up the cherries as you stir. Use a potato masher to mash cherries once or twice during the cooking process. Cook until the cherry jam thickens, about 13 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Cookie Tarts:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a mini muffin pan with some vegan butter substitute.

In a medium bowl add the gluten-free all-purpose baking flour, baking powder, and sea salt. Use a whisk to stir and sift ingredients. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl add vegan butter substitute and vanilla extract. Beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the cane sugar and continue to beat for 2 more minutes.

Add the dry ingredients ½ at a time and mix on low until combined.

Evenly spread the tart cookie dough into the 24 mini muffin cups. A melon baller is about the perfect amount of dough.

Gently press the dough up the sides of the muffin cups leaving an indentation in the middle. (*Tip – careful not to push the dough too thin on the bottom of the cup or jam will seep out the bottom. Leave as thick a bottom as possible while still pushing dough up the sides of the cup.)

Add a rounded ½ tsp. of jam in the center of each tart. (*Tip – Try not to overfill the tarts with excess jam, or it will run over. It is better to have extra cherry jam for a piece of toast or two while you wait than to overfill the tarts.)

Bake for approximately 9 minutes, until a light golden brown on the edges of the tarts.

Cool the tarts in the pan on an oven mitt in the fridge for a few minutes, then place the pan of tarts into the freezer for 10 minutes. To remove, gently twist the tarts in a circle to loosen them and pull out. I’ve found this method to work much better than running a knife around the edges which sometimes causes the tarts to fall apart.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

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With love & sweetness,

Wendy Irene