If you follow me on Instagram you will know our new garden has been producing a lot of fruit. From what we can gather it has been pretty much untouched for the last 3 years and is quite wild and over grown. In amongst the dandelions and tall grass we have 20+ strawberry plants and a cherry tree which is over 50 years old, which despite desperately needing a bit of a trim produces the tastiest cherries.

After making a lot of jam, kirsch and strawberry summer cake I still had a bowl of strawberries and cherries to use up. As they were still in quite good condition I didn’t want to cook them down, so I settled on making this chocolate tart decorated with the fruit.

We will soon have raspberries and red currants to pick, so I need to work out what to do with those.

Chocolate Tart with Strawberries and Cherries

dough

180g plain flour

120g butter

60g icing sugar

A pinch of salt

Chocolate ganache

300g dark chocolate

300g double cream

20g butter

Strawberries and cherries for decorating and serving

Method

In a free-standing mixer beat together the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy. Add the flour and mix until it forms a dough, if your mixture looks a little dry add a splash of water.

Using your hands form a ball and wrap in clingfilm. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll the dough out to a 3mm thickness. Place the dough in a loose bottom tart tin and using the back of a spoon press down and up the sides. Trim the excess dough off.

Bake in an oven preheated to 180c (fan assisted) for 13 minutes or until it is a nice golden brown colour.

Leave to cool completely.

Make the ganache by heating the cream in a small saucepan over a medium-high heat. Once the cream reaches a boil, turn the temperature down and allow to simmer for 1 minute.

Then remove from the heat and allow to cool for another minute.

Break the chocolate into even pieces and place in a heatproof bowl.

Pour the cream over the chocolate and mix until you have a smooth glossy mixture. Stir in the butter and once everything is incorporated pour into the pastry case. It should be level with the top (or just underneath your pastry case), if you have too much ganache leave the rest in a bowl and you can always make truffles with this later.

Put back in the fridge for an hour or until the ganache is set. Then decorate with cherries and strawberries.