Cherry Almond Tray bake

The recipe that I am sharing today is something I made quite a few months back when fresh cherries just started appearing. This was my first food photo shoot in the last seven months. But then could not manage time to post it. Later I thought may be it’s too late to post. But today I saw fresh cherries still being sold in some markets so thought of posting it. Hopefully you still can grab a boxfull of these ruby red delights and can bake it.

Besides that, it's quite a versatile recipe. I have baked it few other time with strawberry, pear, peach and nectarine and it still tasted awesome. So just adapt the recipe to whatever fruit (Little hard like the ones I mentioned above) you can get and use it in this cake. 

Since this recipe has fresh fruits so obviously it wont stay fresh if kept in fridge for longer times. It tastes best within a day or two of baking. If needed scale down the recipe and make small batch and have it fresh.

Another pointer is the almond meal. Readymade almond meals are pretty expensive and nothing beats fresh ingredient. So I rather prefer to make my own almond powder in a mixer grinder skin et al. Since all nuts have oil make sure you are not pulsing it continuously rather grind them in short bursts of 15-30 seconds and using a fork mix it between each interval to loosen the bottom where it tends to get stuck. 

Almond-cherry tray bake

Adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

Flour: 1 cup

Almond: 1/2 cup

Butter: 100 gms (I used Amul salted butter)

Baking Powder: 11/2 tsp

Sugar: 3/4 cup

Eggs: 2

Milk: 80 ml

Vanilla essence: 1/2 tsp

OR

Kirsch cherry liquor: 1 tbsp

Fresh cherries: 1/2 cup

Method:

First line a 8" square pan with butter or parchment paper. Keep some overhang on both sides. Grease the inside of the pan and keep aside.

Pre heat oven to 180C.

Melt the butter and mix in with the milk. Keep aside.

If you have a cherry pitter, pit the cherries and keep aside.

As mentioned earlier make a coarse powder of the almond meal. Sieve the flour, baking powder and mix with the ground almond.

Take a clean bowl and start whisking the sugar and eggs. Using a handheld mixer will make the job easier and the eggs would be light and fluffy within 3 minutes. If using a handheld mixer beat for at least 8-10 minutes to get to that stage. 

Mix the melted butter and vanilla or cherry liquor to the butter mixture. Using a spatula fold it gently.

Sieve the flour mixture on top and fold till everything is incorporated. Immediately pour in the pan and place the pitted cherries on top.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then loosen the sides with a knife. Using the overhang take it out gently and cool on a wire rack.

Cut in squares and serve.