Rustic Cherry Pie

I had made some appetizers recently with puff pastry and I had an extra piece to use (along with a craving for something sweet). I have made my own puff pastry before, but the store bough frozen puff pastry is so incredibly easy in a pinch. I also had some frozen cherries to use. I started with the idea to make little cherry hand pies and ended up just folding it into one simple rustic cherry pie by folding the edges in. I simply rolled out the thawed puff pastry sheet on flour, made the cherry filling to place in the center and folded the edges in.  I brushed the top with butter and sprinkled it with some sugar. I would prefer using fresh cherries or other fruit, but this was a great way to use up the pastry and frozen fruit and will be an easy go-to dessert option for at home or to take to a dinner party.

It was a lovely spring day and we had all the windows open in the house. While we enjoyed our roast chicken sunday dinner, I displayed the pie in the window sill. This is not always how our weekends go, but we had a particularly wonderful meal planned and it was a relaxing day. We went to the market in the morning also and I decorated many other window sills with poppies and tulips.

Recipe for Rustic Cherry Pie

Ingredients:

One sheet of puff pastry

Melted butter to brush on top

Sugar to sprinkle on top

Cherry filling:

2-3 cups pitted cherries (fresh or frozen)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

1 T. cornstarch

1T. fresh lemon juice 

Directions:

Roll out the puff pastry sheet on a floured surface. Mix cherry filling in a bowl. Spoon into the middle of the pastry.  Put a few pats of butter on top of the filling.  Fold the edges of the pastry in and pinch to hold. Brush the top of the pastry with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 20 minutes. 

Stars, Stripes and Cherries

Happy 4th of July! I have always loved the 4th of July. What's not to love? BBQ, fun in the sun, fireworks and time with family. I also have always looked forward to my birthday being only a week away. This year, my husband is traveling far, far away (to the far east, in fact) and wouldn't be here to enjoy all those lovely things. While I knew he would have an amazing first class airline meal to choose from, we had our 4th of July celebration on the 3rd this year including a picnic, some time at the beach and a lobster dinner that ended with this yummy cherry pie with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.

This stars and stripes pastry idea was on the most recent cover of Martha Stewart Living. They used different pie fillings, but I decided to use cherries that are in season in Michigan right now and these cherries were picked just up the road from where we live.

I made my pastry a day in advance to allow it to chill. I actually made enough for four single crust pies, so I have some pie pastry in the freezer to save me some time later.

I made a small pie with some of these vintage pie tins my mum gave me. I was able to get the pie crust for the bottom and have plenty left over to cut out my stars and stripes to use for the top from just a single crust portion of dough. I used a rotary ravioli cutter for the stripes and a Christmas cookie cutter in the shape of a star.

I pulled this together quick while we were video conferencing with my husband's family and preparing our lobster dinner. Oh....and chasing our 1 1/2 year old around! The four stars and three stripes have no significant meaning aside from that is what I fit on this little pie.

After I arranged the stars and stripes, I brushed on an egg wash and sprinkled it with turbinado sugar.



Here it is all baked and ready to serve with homemade ice cream. The pastry got nice and golden brown from the egg wash and the fresh cherry filling was so juicy and sweet. The stars and stripes just weren't as pretty when it was cut into pieces, so I didn't bother taking photos after it was cut.