Roasted cherries tartelettes with Oreo crust and chocolate ganache filling

Cherries were in season. I couldn't get enough of them. In all, I bought about a kilo (and more) of cherries in the last month. Whenever I happened to walk by the supermart, I'm bound to pop in to check whether cherries were available and whether they were on sale.

Roasted cherries tartelettes with Oreo crust and chocolate ganache filling

Roasted cherries; Fresh cherries

I knew I wanted to make something with them (if I could only just stop popping them straight into my mouth that is). I found inspiration from a recipe I saw online, and just amended the cherry filling. While the original recipe used fresh cherries, I decided to roast the cherries to give them a more intense flavour. The original recipe did not state to bake the tart shells, but I like my crusts crunchy, thus I decided to place them in the oven for a little while. I also used a mix of the many Valrhona chocolates I had on hand (primarily Jivara milk, with hints of a few dark varieties). 

The results were rather scrumptious. Albeit a little rich (okay, plenty sweet). If you are having an intense chocolate craving, this will surely shut that craving right up, and more. I love Oreos (sans cream) so it was quite a pleasure to remove all the filling and bin them. I know. Some of you guys out there who actually like the filling are gasping and yelling "Blasphemy!". Sorry! ;) Anyway, back to the crust.


The crust was really buttery and crunchy (that is if you serve it immediately from the fridge. That aside, the crust still turned soggy pretty fast even when I had prebaked them in the oven. I wonder why. Perhaps the humidity here in Singapore? Sigh.


The ganache filling was really decadent. Soft, creamy, velvety chocolate encased in the crust shell. Coupled with the roasted cherries, oh my, it was sinful pleasure in one bite. Needless to say, the Sis loved it. ;)

Roasted cherries tartelettes with Oreo crust and chocolate ganache filling (adapted from here and here)
(makes 10)

Roasted cherries
2 cups fresh cherries, pitted and halved
1-2 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 220C. Mix cherries and sugar. Line a baking tray and pour the sugar cherries mixture onto it. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cherries are slightly tender and release the juices. Remove from oven and cool.

Oreo cookie tart crust
35 Oreos, with the middle cream filling removed (70 cookie halves)
100g salted butter, melted

Lower the oven temp to 180C. Pulse the Oreo cookies in a processor. Add the melted butter and combine till the butter is evenly incorporated. Butter the tart molds. Line the butter cookie mixture into the tart molds, leaving a well in the centre. Bake for 15 minutes and leave to cool.

Chocolate ganache filling
200ml cream
200g chocolate, chopped

Heat the cream till just boiling. Pour over chopped chocolate. Leave for a few minutes before stirring till the mixture is smooth and glossy.

Pour the chocolate ganache filling into cooled tart shells, top with roasted cherries. Serve! Or refrigerate and serve chilled. The ganache filling doesn't solidify into one block, rather, it was soft and creamy so it was like biting into fudge.