Cherry Pie Tart Squares

makes about 24 squares.

These are best the day they’re made, but I wouldn’t refuse them the next day. They survive well enough left out at room temperature.

I’ve never had a problem finding sour cherries in a supermarket—usually with the canned fruit, but sometimes they’re in the ethnic aisle.

For the dough base:
2 sticks (225 g) unsalted butter, cut up into chunks
2 large egg yolks

For the dough base:
2 sticks (225 g) unsalted butter, cut up into chunks
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons (25 g) granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon (2 g, or a pinch) salt
2 cups (294 g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon (14 g) lemon juice
1 teaspoon (5 g) baking soda
3 tablespoons (40 g) breadcrumbs
2 24-oz jars (672 g each) pitted sour cherries in light syrup

For the meringue:
4 large egg whites
1/3 cup (75 g) sugar

Directions:
1. Drain the cherries as well as you can. (You can save the syrup or toss it. I like it added to iced tea, or I just drink it straight.)

2. In a large bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar together just to mix.

3. Toss in the butter, then, the flour. Stir it up just to get the mixing started, but the bulk of the mixing will happen in a second.

4. Ok. This is a weird step, but bear with me. Take your baking soda, and put it in a big spoon. All at the same time, pour the lemon juice over the baking soda, and as it activates and foams up, let it run off the spoon over the stuff in the bowl. The acid from the lemon juice reacts with the baking soda and starts the leavening process right there in the bowl!

5. Start mixing the dough. Knead it, and turn it, and work it. Break up the butter into it as you go. Eventually it will form a firm dough.

6. Wrap the piece in plastic, and let it rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight. We want the butter in the dough to get cold and firm up.

7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a high-sided baking pan by spritzing it with some non-stick cooking spray (or grease the sides with a piece of butter). Mom used a roasting pan, about 10″x14″. (I use a glass baking dish, ’cause that’s all I got!)

8. Flour a tabletop with a light dusting of flour, and roll the piece out to about 1/2 inch thickness. No need to be neat about it. If it’s rough around the edges, that’s no biggie.

9. Wrap the dough around the pin for easier transport from the table to the baking pan. If it rips, it doesn’t matter, because it get’s pressed into the pan, all rustic-style, like in the old country. Once the even-ness is satisfactory, sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the surface. Hopefully, some of the extra moisture that oozes out of the cherries will be absorbed, and the base won’t get soggy.

10. Spread the cherries over the surface. A single layer is ideal, but dense is best. Pack ’em in there!

11. Bake. About 25-30 minutes, just until the dough part is golden. Remove the pan from the oven, let rest on the side, and heat  up the broiler.

12. Once it’s baked, and only when it’s baked, start the meringue:

Slowly, at medium speed, start beating the whites. (You can use hand-held electric beaters, a standing mixer with a whip attachment, or manually, with a hand-held whisk.) When it starts getting frothy, like this, slowly start pouring in the sugar, all the while whisking.

13. Once the sugar is all in, increase the speed of the beaters to medium-high, and continue to whisk until the consistency is a pretty firm peak.

14. Quickly, spread the mixture over the baked cherry base. If the base hasn’t completely cooled from baking, that’s ok. I like to keep the top rough and full of personality, with peaks and valleys.

15. Stick the pan under the broiler, about 6 inches away. Watch it carefully! This will just take a minute or two. It’s a good time to finally make use of the window of your oven door. Once the top becomes golden, it’s done! It’s a matter of a minute between nicely browned and burned, so keep that watchful eye.

16. It’s best to slice it before it cools. The meringue tends to stick to the knife for dear life, so run the knife under hot water, dry with a kitchen towel, then slice. It does help make a cleaner cut. I get about 24 pieces, but I suppose 16 BIG pieces wouldn’t be bad either (wink.) Serve em up!