Cherry-Cream Cheese Hand Pies

After Memorial Day every year I must make two things: pie and ice cream.  Summer fruits are delicious on their own, but they're also so good inside of a pastry crust.  And even after baking the flavor of the fruit was fresh and maintained its shape, and it didn't turn into that cherry goop I hate in storebought pies.  The cream cheese mixture adds a nice sweetness and tang to the cherries.  I can see myself throwing these in the picnic basket all summer.

I was bummed at not posting last week, but look what I've had to distract me!  Nearly a year after losing my best buddy and the sweetest cat in the entire world, Baby, we found Shnooky a little brother.  We got Dalton,1½ years old, at the local shelter.  During the day he sleeps under the bed, but at night he's a furball of energy.  He loves chasing the laser pointer dot and cries if he loses sight of it, and he likes to sing at 2 a.m. when the world is asleep.  We're working on changing his name, and Joe is pushing for Gandalf the Grey because he waves his paws around like he's casting spells.  You'd think I'd love that, considering the name of this blog, right?  I'm not sure yet that Gandalf sounds cute enough for this fella.

I have a point to my digression.  I had done my baking prep, making the pie dough and quartering the cherries.  And since they were frozen cherries, I didn't have to wrestle with the pitter.  Then we got our new cat, plus my editor asked me to submit my next Boston Globe dining review a week earlier than we'd agreed on.  So no time for cherry pies.  The cherries stayed unspoiled in the freezer, as did half a batch of the pie dough.  For some dumb reason I didn't freeze both halves, so I substituted some storebought puff pastry sitting in my freezer and it worked great.  So when life gets busy, baking projects are salvageable!

Also, my next food review runs in The Boston Globe this Sunday, so check back here for the URL!

Update: This post made the Foodbuzz Top 9!

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Whatcha' Whipped Up Wednesdays
Sweets for a Saturday

Cherry Custard Pie

I think nothing says summer like homemade ice cream, peach pie, and cherry pie. I already made the first two this summer, so I had cherry pie on the brain. I like how this one is different, with the cherries sitting in a sweet custard and that flaky crust. This recipe's from Ken Haedrich's Pie, but I used Rose Levy Beranbaum's Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust, my all-time favorite pie dough recipe. Save your dough scraps to make the cute little cherry cutouts, and the leftover cream to whip for garnish.

This contraption is a cherry pitter. You could also use frozen, pitted cherries for convenience, especially out of season.


After rolling out, trim the ends to an even circle, and tuck under.


Shape the rolled-under edge into a scalloped crust.


Poking holes reduces puffing-up. I followed the instructions for resting and chilling, but there was still some crust shrinkage. Can't be helped sometimes, I guess.


After pouring in your custard -- which was so easy to throw together -- drop the cherries in one by one, trying to space them evenly. Plan enough time for the cooling and chilling before serving.

Cherry Custard Pie

From Ken Haedrich's Pie

1 recipe Basic Flaky Pie Pastry, Single Crust (See the cream cheese pie dough recipe I used here)

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

⅔ cup sugar

1 cup light cream or half-and-half

½ cup heavy or whipping cream

½ tsp vanilla extract

1½ tbs kirsch, Grand Marnier, or triple sec (optional)

Pinch of salt

One 15-ounce can pitted sweet cherries, drained, or 1½ cups fresh sweet cherries, stemmed and pitted

Prepare the pastry and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400°. On a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper, roll the pastry into a 12-inch circle with a floured rolling pin. Invert the pastry over a 9-inch standard pie pan, center, and peel off the paper. Tuck the pastry into the pan, without stretching it, and sculpt the edge so it is slightly higher than the rim. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes, then partially prebake (Fit a sheet of foil into the pie pastry and pour in enough dried beans or other pie weights to fill to the top. Bake the pie shell on the center rack for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and beans and lower the temperature to 375°, then take a fork and prick the pastry all over the bottom. Bake the pie shell for another 10 to 12 minutes.) and let cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°.

Combine the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend briefly on medium speed. Add the light cream, heavy cream, vanilla, kirsch (if using), and salt and blend briefly. Slowly pour the filling into the cooled pie shell. One by one, gently drop the cherries into the filling, spacing them more or less evenly.

Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake until the custard is set, about 45 minutes. Rotate the pie 180 degrees halfway through the baking, so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward. When done, the filling will jiggle -- not move in waves -- when you give the pie a little nudge.

Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool thoroughly. Cover with loosely tented aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight before serving.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Strudel, ja!!

This might be the funnest baking challenge yet. Joe loved it so much that he helped me make a few more (and eat most of them). I wanted something different from the usual apple filling, so I made Cherry Cheese Strudel.

I was surprised by how easy it is to make strudel, especially the dough. Holes and tears are inevitable, and I sure had some, but they're not visible after the dough is rolled up and baked. It comes out beautifully golden and crispy, and the cherry filling is delicious. You do need a lot of space -- a whole table to move around -- and a cloth for assembling the dough. The rollup is definitely my favorite part!

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

The dough had to be rolled out thin, then stretched and pulled even thinner.


You had to be able to read through it. Then came the cherry and cheese filling.

Filling adapted from Martha Stewart's Cherry Cheese Strudel

I had to adapt the filling to fit the smaller dough recipe used in this challenge. I also used a bag of frozen dark sweet cherries, thawed.

12 oz. fresh sour cherries, stemmed and pitted, juices reserved

3/4 cups granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp cornstarch

6 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 large egg yolk

Combine the cherries and their juice, half the sugar, half the salt, and cinnamon in a medium high-sided skillet. Place over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil. Cook until juice is reduced, about 10 minutes. Transfer 2 tablespoons of juice to a small bowl; add the cornstarch, and whisk until combined. Return mixture to skillet and cook, stirring until thickened, about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, and the remaining sugar and salt on medium-high speed until very smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk, and beat to combine.

Once you've rolled out the dough, starting about 6 inches from the top edge, spread the cream cheese in a 6-inch-wide layer, horizontally, leaving a 3-inch border on each end. Arrange the cherry mixture evenly on top of the cream cheese. Using the cloth, lift up and flip the 6-inch top edge of the dough over the filling. Repeat lifting and folding once, leaving sides open. Then fold in sides of dough to enclose the filling. Continue lifting and folding until the dough is completely rolled into a flat log. If the ends are very thick, trim them as you work.

The recipe for the strudel dough (along with the apple filling suggested in the challenge) and the remaining instructions follow.

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Lattice-top Cherry Pie

It's not hard to do. Really! I'll even show you how to weave the lattice.

After you roll out your bottom crust and tuck it into your pie plate, roll out your top crust (the instructions say to roll it to a 12x10-inch rectangle, but I could never roll out a perfect rectangle; could you?) and cut it into eight strips with your pastry wheel or a knife. I didn't bother measuring, hence the uneven strips. Use the long strips for the center of your pie, and the shorter strips for the sides. Lay five of them vertically across your pie plate.

Then fold down strips 2 and 4, and lay another strip horizontally across the middle. Fold strips 2 and 4 back up. Then fold down strips 1, 3, and 5, and lay another strip horizontally across the top of the pie.

Next, fold up strips 1, 3, and 5, and lay the last strip horizontally across the bottom of the pie. Fold the strips back down, and trim off any overhang with a small knife. You're done!

Final tips: Wear an apron or old shirt when you're pitting those cherries, unless you don't mind red stains on your shirt. I also used regular cherries I found at the supermarket, instead of hunting for sour cherries as the recipe calls for. Still tastes good!

From Ken Haedrich's Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie

Lattice-Top Deep-Dish Sour Cherry Pie

All-Butter Pie Pastry, Double Crust (recipe follows)

For the filling

6 cups fresh sour cherries, stemmed and pitted

1 1/4 cups plus 3 tbs sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 tbs cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the glaze

Milk or light cream

Sugar

• Prepare the pastry as directed, making half of it just slightly larger than the other. Shape the larger half into a disk and the other half into a square. Wrap the pastry as usual and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 1 hour.
• Roll the disk of pastry into a 13 1/2-inch circle with a floured rolling pin. Gently tuck the pastry into a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish pie pan without stretching it, and sculpt the overhang into an upstanding ridge. Place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
• Place the cherries in a large bowl. Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a small bowl, then stir the mixture into the fruit. Stir in the lemon juice and zest. Set aside for 10 minutes to juice. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Roll the remaining pastry into a 12x10-inch rectangle. With a pastry wheel or pizza cutter, cut the pastry into 8 lengthwise strips, each 1 1/4 inches wide. You should have 8 strips measuring 12 inches long and 1 1/4 inches wide. Set aside.
• Turn the filling into the chilled pie shell, moistening the rim of the shell slightly. Smooth the top of the filling with a spoon or spatula. Dot the filling with the butter. Then follow the instructions at the top of my post for weaving the lattice. Trim the strips, then pinch the end of the strips into the edge of the pastry. Lightly brush the pastry strips with milk and sprinkle the top of the pie with sugar.
• Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and rotate the pie 180 degrees, so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward. Just in case, slide a large aluminum foil-lined baking sheet onto the rack below to catch any spills. (Really do this! The boiling-over is almost inevitable. In fact, do it when you first put the pie in.) Continue to bake until the top is golden brown and any visible juices bubble thickly, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 2 hours before serving.

All-Butter Pie Pastry (double crust)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

About 1/2 cup cold water

• Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse several times to mix. Scatter the butter over the dry ingredients and pulse 7 or 8 times to cut the butter in well. Remove the lid and fluff the mixture with a fork, lifting it up from the bottom of the bowl. Drizzle half of the water over the dry ingredients. Pulse 5 or 6 times, until the mixture is crumbly. Fluff the pastry and sprinkle on the remaining water. Pulse 5 or 6 times more, until the pastry starts to form clumps. It will look like coarse crumbs. Empty into a large bowl. (If you don't have a food processor, roughly follow the same instructions using your pastry cutter.)
• Test the dough by squeezing some of it between your fingers; if it seems a little dry and not quite packable, drizzle a teaspoon or so of cold water over the dough and work it in with your fingertips. Using your hands, pack the dough into 2 balls, as you would pack a snowball. Knead each ball once or twice, then shape into a circle and a square and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight before rolling.

I used the leftover dough and set aside some of the cherry filling to make this personal-sized cherry tart.