Mini Cherry Tart

I dragged friends cherry-picking over the weekend. We got a very good haul of fresh, ripe cherries. I decided it was a waste to cook such fresh cherries in any way, so I opted to make tarts out of them. I tried two different crusts - a standard pie crust and a wonton-wrapper crust, but the pie crust was decidedly better. :P

Time: 1:30
Serves: 15

Crust
Ingredients
1 cup flour
6 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp cold water

1. Cut the butter into the flour in a medium mixing bowl. Mash with a fork or your hand until there are small chunks in the flour.
2. Pour in the water a little at a time. The dough should take shape and pull into a ball away from the bowl.
3. Wrap in cling-wrap and put in the fridge for 30min. Preheat oven to 350F.
4. Cut the dough into approx 15 evenly sized pieces. Roll into a ball, then with a rolling pin, roll into a circle. For tarts, don't make the crust too thin. Place into a mini-muffin pan, making sure to leave some of the dough hanging over the edge.
5. Bake for about 15-20min or until edges start to brown. You could weigh down the crust with beans or something, but I liked letting it puff up a bit.
6. Cool on a rack.

Filling
Ingredients
1 package instant pudding mix
15 fresh cherries, pitted

Make the pudding according to the package and let firm in the fridge. Spoon into the tart crusts until it's about 3/4 full, then place a pitted cherry on top.
To pit cherries, I poked a pointed chopstick through the hole where the stem was, drew a circle around the pit to loosen the fibers around it, then popped it out. The underside of the cherry should remain whole with minimal practice.

Variations
Press thin wonton wrappers into the mini muffin pan and bake at 350F for 10min or until the edges brown. I used thick wonton wrappers this time which turned out too hard to bite, but I've baked thin ones before which worked out much better. A word of caution - the pudding filling can sit in the pie crust tart without seeping in, but an assembled wonton wrapper tart should be served immediately, as it will soften over time.
Use homemade pudding or pastry cream. I was short on time, so I just used the instant stuff.