sour cherry and hazelnut bars

sour cherry and hazelnut bars

• 3 Nov 2025

Helen Goh recently visited Australia to promote her new book, Baking and the Meaning of Life. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend any of the events because I was overseas myself. 

Now that I'm home again it's time to get back into baking and naturally the first thing I baked was from Helen's new book. I don't have a copy yet but I had a sneak peak at the book at the local book shop and it's a gorgeous tome. 

I decided to make the plum and pistachio bars from the book using what I had at hand, frozen sour cherries instead of plums and hazelnut meal instead of pistachios. I also made them with gluten free flour so I could share them with my neighbours.

The bars are a riff on a Bakewell tart, with a pastry base and a frangipane filling. Fruit is used in lieu of jam and a dredging of icing sugar replaces the icing.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17 cm cake, which I adapted from a Helen Goh recipe. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Sour cherry and hazelnut bars - makes 8 bars
Pastry
100g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)

30g icing sugar
pinch fine sea salt
65g unsalted butter (cold, cut into cubes)
2 tsp (ice cold) water

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Sour cherry and hazelnut filling
55g self-raising flour
¼ tsp baking powder
pinch fine sea salt
100g unsalted butter (softened)
100g caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
25g ground almonds
25g ground pistachios or hazelnuts
½ tsp vanilla extract
100g frozen sour cherries
15g coarsely chopped toasted skinned hazelnuts

To finish
icing sugar (for dusting)

Method
To make the pastry, combine the flour, icing sugar and salt in a food processor. Process for a few seconds, then add the butter and pulse a few times until the mixture is the consistency of crumbs. Lightly whisk together the egg yolk and water, then add this to the mix, pulsing just to combine.

Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface – it will be quite soft and slightly sticky. Dust your hands lightly with flour, pat the dough to form a ball. Wrap loosely in plastic wrap and press gently to form a flattish disc. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (and up to 3 days) before using. 

Meanwhile, line the base and sides of a 17cm square cake tin, ideally with a removable base, with baking paper. If your tin doesn’t have a removable base, extend the baking paper 5cm over the side of the tin; this will help with removing the cake later.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. If it has been in the fridge for longer than 1 hour, allow it to rest at room temperature for a few minutes. Tap the pastry with a rolling pin to soften it slightly before rolling it out to 4 mm thick. Place the cake tin on the pastry to use as a guide to cut out a 17 cm square. Using your rolling pin to help lift the square, gently lower it into the base of the tin and prick it all over with a fork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180˚C fan-forced/200°C conventional. Bake the pastry for 15–17 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C fan-forced/180°C conventional.

To make the filling, sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Place the butter, caster sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until just combined – not until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat for a minute between each addition. Once the eggs are all incorporated, reduce the speed to low and add the sifted dry ingredients, followed by the ground almonds, pistachio or hazelnut meal and the vanilla extract. Mix until just combined, then scrape into the pastry shell and smooth out into an even layer using an offset spatula or spoon. 

Place the frozen cherries in a single layer on top of the batter – they will eventually sink but need to be exposed to the heat of the oven in the first instance. Sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts before placing in the oven.

Bake on the centre rack for 45-55 minutes or until golden brown and firm – tap the centre of the cake with your 3 middle fingers to check. When cooked, transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Using the baking paper, lift the cake out of the tin. Dust liberally with icing sugar and slice into 8 even bars.

Preparation Tip
If sour cherries don’t take your fancy, you can replace them with apricots, raspberries or plums.

This was a nice gentle return to baking. The bars have a buttery shortbread base, a nutty cake like filling brightened with bursts of sour cherries and some crunch from the toasted hazelnuts -a winning combination. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian