Cherry Tart

8 ounces plain flour
1 pinch salt
2 teaspoons icing sugar
1 ounce cornflour
4 ounces lard 2 ounces margarine,
mixed with the lard 1 egg yolk 2 tablespoons cold water
Filling
1 lb black cherries, stoned (or pitted if you prefer)
4 ounces icing sugar
2 eggs
3 ounces ground almonds, finely ground
3 to 5 drops almond essence
1 Set oven to 400F or gas Mark 6. 2 Make the pastry- Sift the flour,
salt, cornflour and icing sugar into a bowl. 3 Rub in the mixed
lard/margarine and bind into a dough with the egg yolk and
water. 4 Knead the pastry lightly and roll out. 5 Grease a 9 inch
pie dish and line with the rolled out pastry. 6 Bake blind for 15
minutes. 7 Reduce oven temperature to 325F or gas Mark 3. 8
Remove pie shell from oven. 9 Arrange cherries in the pastry case.
10 Mix the sugar, eggs and almonds together with the almost
essence. 11 Pour the mixture over the cherries. 12 Bake for 50- 60
minutes until firm and golden. 13 Serve hot or cold with cream
and/or ice cream. 14 NB Baking blind is to place s piece of baking
paper in the shell, then fill the shell with split peas (or other
appropriate filling). 15 The peas and paper are removed when the
shell is cooked. 16 This causes an even heat to be distributed and at
the same time prevents the bottom and the sides of the shell from
expanding too much and appearing'lumpy'. 17 It also helps give
the shell a pale colour so that when it is baked later with a filling it
does not go black.