When Melina was a child cream horns were a favorite. Unintentionally, this recipe conjures the best from that nostalgia and is simultaneously refreshing and indulgent. It's a low-maintenance recipe perfect for summer, and, loaded with cheery tart and rainier cherries, delivers big on *wow.*
Ingredients
- 1 package quality puff pastry, such as Dufour
- 2 cups sour cherries
- 2 cups Rainier cherries
- 1 package cream cheese
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tbsp La Tourangelle Roasted Pistachio Oil
- 1/3 cup pistachios, toasted until fragrant
- 1 tbsp confectioners sugar, sifted
- Buttermilk, for brushing pastry
- Demerara sugar, for sprinkling
Directions
- Thaw pastry overnight in the refrigerator. Remove from fridge 15 minutes before working, and on a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry until 1/4-inch thick. Cut into 9 squares and arrange on a baking sheet between layers of parchment, then refrigerate.
- Use an immersion blender or food processor to blend sour cream, cream cheese, pistachio oil, and confectioners sugar. Mixture should look uniform and silky smooth.
- Use a spice grinder or mortar and pestle to crush the pistachios. A mixture of coarse chunks and fine crumbs is ideal. It's helpful to remove portions of fine crumb matter as you pulse so as not to turn them into nut butter.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees, convection setting. Use a sharp knife to score along each side of pastry, creating a frame or border about 1/2-inch in from the edge. Repeat with each square, arranging them on two baking sheets. Refrigerate one batch while you work with the other.
- Paint pastries with buttermilk and sprinkle with Demerara sugar. Bake pastries for 15 minutes or until deeply golden - you may need to rotate pans halfway through for even baking.
- Cool pastries on a wire rack until they can be easily handled. With a serrated knife, hold knife sideways and slice along the scored frame until the pastry "lid" can be removed. Enjoy these as cook's snack while working on assembling the tarts!
- Dollop sour cream-cream cheese mixture into each pastry once at room temperature. Top with cherries, then sprinkle with crushed pistachios. Eat immediately.
Recipe Note
The pastry shells can be made a day in advance and the filling can be prepared up to 5 days in advance, leaving only the assembly to do before serving to guests.