Mini Cherry Pies

Zack's grandparents have a farm in central WA and we were able to visit them over the weekend. We came home with big gallon bags of the three types of cherries they have. And I decided to make mini cherry pies because mini pies are adorable. So I bought myself a great little cherry pitter (does 4 at once!) and tonight we pitted 8 cups of beautiful pie cherries. I found a filling recipe to try but had to fiddle with the numbers to make the proportions right (using math in everyday situations, can't believe it) and it is great! I made some pie crust and threw these together in under an hour. Right now they are in the oven, the smell is killing us!

Here is the normal pie filling recipe, it's supposed to be enough for a 9" pie. (For future reference, one recipe's worth of dough makes enough for 5 mini pies)

Filling

1 c water

1 c sugar

1/4 tsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp almond extract

red food coloring

5 c pitted pie cherries

Dough

2 1/4 c flour

3/4 tsp salt

2/3 c shortening

8 - 10 T cold water

1.  Dissolve sugar and cornstarch in water in large saucepan over medium heat. 

2. Stir until thickened, clear and bubbly. Cook for 2 minutes, constantly stirring. Remove from heat.

3. Add extract and food coloring. Slowly stir in cherries, let cool to room temperate. 

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5. In a medium bowl, stir together flour and salt. Cut in shortening with pastry blender, until pea-size.

6. Add 1 T of water to mix, toss with fork. Continue adding in water 1 T at a time and tossing until dough is the right consistency to mold and roll on counter.

7. Roll dough into a ball, then use rolling pin to flatten out into shape(s) needed.

8. Place bottom of dough into pan(s), add a few spoonfuls of the cooled filling.

9. Top with second dough, cut slits or air vents in top layer. Pinch two layers of dough together. If desired, sprinkle sugar over the top before placing in oven.

10. Bake 45 minutes until golden brown and filling is bubbling. Let cool on wire rack.

pitting the cherries

all ready!

ahh so cute I'm dying

delicious!

Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream

Zak's grandparents mailed us a big box of cherries last week and we decided to try a new cherry vanilla ice cream.  The recipe we tried a year or two ago was ok, but froze very hard.  This new recipe was like the peach raspberry ice cream we made a few weeks ago--we basically used the base and then added cherries. My friend let us use her cherry pitter, which was awesome!  It is a great tool.  The ice cream was great, soft and creamy and perfect on a hot summer day.

1 c. milk
3/4 c. sugar + 1/8 c.
1 c. half & half
1/2 Tbl. vanilla
2 c. cream
2 c. pitted, quartered cherries
1 1/2 Tbl. vanilla

1.  Scald milk on stove until bubble form around the edges, remove from heat.
2.  Pour into a heat-proof bowl and stir in sugar and salt until it's all dissolved.
3.  Add in half & half, vanilla and heavy cream.
4.  Cover tightly, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5.  Freeze ice cream according to ice cream maker's directions.  Once it has churned for about 20 minutes (starting to stiffen up), add pitted, quartered cherries and continue mixing another 5 - 10 minutes.
6.  Freeze in freezer for a few hours.

delicious!

Chinese Sundaes / Hawaiian Haystacks

This is a family tradition. We often have it a few times a year, but the most memorable time is at the beach. My family has been going to the same motel, on the same beach, since my dad was a baby. It is one of my favorite places to be! My mom almost always makes this meal for the family, which has now grown to at least 30 of us. It's an ordeal, but it's tradition, too. Zak was wary of this, when I first talked about making it a few years ago. He was hesitant, but being the trusting guy in his woman's cooking that he is, ventured forth and came out a fan. Now every time I mention I'm making Chinese Sundaes, he gets all excited. They are that good. And we don't call them Hawaiian Haystacks, but I guess some people do, so whatever floats your boat. It's a simple meal to throw together, the only thing that takes time and a recipe is the chicken gravy, oh man. It's hard to not dump it all on your sundae because it's so good. Mmm. Well, I'll post the 'order' of the sundaes, as well as the chicken gravy recipe. Enjoy!

1. Rice

2. Chow Mein Noodles (crunchy)

3. Chicken (diced, cooked)

4. Chicken Gravy

5. Tomato (diced)

6. Celery (diced)

7. Cheese (grated)

8. Gravy again (optional, but if you're feeling indulgent, go for it)

9. Crushed Pineapple

10. Green Onion

11. Sliced Almonds

12. Coconut

13. Cherry

the perfect sundae (without celery)

Chicken Gravy

6 Tbl. butter

6 Tbl. flour

1 1/2 c. chicken broth

1 c. milk

salt & pepper to taste

*our microwave is crazy powerful, so I usually cook the recipe starting around 50 or 60% power, working my way up and checking often, so it doesn't overflow*

1. Melt butter for about 1 1/2 minutes.

2. Once butter is melted, whisk in flour; cook for about 1 1/2 minutes, or until bubbly and thicker.

3. Add in liquids, slowly and whisking as you go. Once all the liquids have been added, microwave for 3 minutes.

4. Whisk, cook 2 minutes.

5. Whisk, cook 1 1/2 minutes.

6. Repeat until sauce is fairly thick, or until however thick you want it to be. Salt & pepper to taste.

(this recipe makes about 3 cups)

everything all laid out

close-up

Bing Cherry Jam

Well, we still had a lot of cherries after we made the ice cream, so I figured I'd make cherry jam. I found a pretty simple recipe online that worked well, the only problem was that I wasn't sure when the jam was done, because it was my first time doing it alone. But it seemed to work just fine, and now we have yummy cherry jam to enjoy for awhile!

4 c. pitted fresh bing cherries
2 c. sugar
2 Tbl. lemon juice
1 pinch salt
3 Tbl. dry pectin

1. Add the cherries, lemon juice, sugar, salt to slow cooker; stir gently and let stand for 15 minutes or until sugar is mostly dissolved.
2. Sprinkle with pectin.
3. Cover and cook on LOW for 2 1/2, stirring 2 - 3 times while cooking.
4. Remove the lid, turn the cooker to HIGH and cook 2 - 3 hours more, until jam reached desired consistency (make sure to check on it every once in awhile, because I had a huge mess to clean up--but I had left the lid on it)
5. Ladle the jam into clean spring-top glass jars, or screw tops with new lids (I bought some plastic freezer jars from Ball that worked just fine), let stand to cool.
6. Store, covered in the fridge for up to 2 months, or freeze.

This recipe's supposed to yield 5 cups. I doubled the recipe and filled 4 16 oz. plastic jars. Just sayin'.

work station

173 cherries = 1 hour to pit

all ready after hours of cooking

on homemade bread

Vanilla Cherry Ice Cream

Yesterday we made an impulse purchase: a 4 qt., Rival ice cream maker for $20. It was on clearance at Wal-Mart and we decided we might as well give it a shot; we don't need to get the $100 Kitchenaid attachment just yet. Well, I had been looking at recipes for bing cherries (since we have a huge flat left, and some are starting to turn yucky), and came across a vanilla cherry ice cream recipe. And since that is both one of our favorite recipes, we decided to give it a shot. It's a very simple recipe and we are quite pleased with the results with both the recipe and the ice cream maker. We are now excited about making different types of ice cream this summer....

2 c. heavy cream
1 c. milk
3/4 c. white sugar
1 Tbl. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
2 c. fresh cherries, pitted and cut in half (we did quarters so it would be easier to eat)

1. Combine the cream, milk and sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved.
2. Stir in the extracts; add the cherries.
3. Pour into ice cream mixture and churn according to manufacturer's instructions.

churning away

after being frozen overnight

yum yum yum!

Zak has stained hands now, haha

Cherry Pie

This week I made cherry pie, for the first time ever.  I actually don't even remember having cherry pie that often, but I know Zak loves it, and we had a huge bag of pie cherries from his grandparents, so I decided to give it a shot.  I've only made  pie crust a handful of times (Zak has always been around to help out with that; we made apple pie a few Thanksgivings ago together), so I was a bit nervous.  I used a recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, since it seemed pretty simple.  The result was very delicious, however, next time I will perhaps make it thicker, because we had a fair amount of cherry syrup hanging around in the bottom of the pan.  Oh well, not bad for my first time!

Pastry for Double-Crust Pie:

2 1/4 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2/3 c. shortening
8 - 10 Tbl. cold water

1. In a medium bowl, stir together flour and salt.  Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until pieces are pea size.
2. Sprinkle 1 Tbl. of water over part of the flour mixture; toss with  fork.  Push moistened pastry to side of bowl; repeat until all of the flour mixture is moistened.  Divide pastry in half; form halves into balls.
3. On lightly floured surface, slightly flatten one pastry ball.  Roll it from the center to the edges into a circle 12 inches in diameter.
4. Wrap pastry circle around the rolling pin; unroll into a 9-inch pie plate.
5. Roll remaining ball into circle; cut slits in it.  Place onto filling; trim the two crust edges and then fold top under the bottom and crimp edges as desired.

Pie Filling:


1 1/4 c. sugar
3 Tbl. cornstarch
5 1/2 fresh (or frozen) unsweetened pitted tart red cherries
1 recipe Pastry for Double-Crust Pie

1. In large bowl, stir together sugar and cornstarch.  Add cherries; toss gently until coated.  Let mixture stand about 15 minutes or until a syrup forms, stirring occasionally (if using frozen cherries, let it stand about 45 minutes or until fruit is partially thawed but still icy).
2. Preheat oven to 375-degrees.  Prepare and roll out the pastry dough.
3. Stir cherry mixture, transfer to pastry-lined pie plate.  Trim bottom pastry to edge of pie plate.  Cut slits in remaining pastry; place on filling and seal; crimp edges as desired.
4. If desired, brush top pastry with milk and sprinkle with additional sugar.  Place pie on a baking sheet.  To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil.
5. Bake for 30 minutes (or 50 for partially thawed frozen fruit).  Remove foil.  Baking an additional 25-30 minutes or until filling is bubbly and pastry is golden.  Cool on a wire rack.

ready for the top crust

ready to go in the oven!

mmmmmmm!

not as pretty, but still delicious!