I hope each and everyone of you had a great weekend and those of you celebrating July 4th had a great one as well. We had a lovely weekend that was spent with friends who visited us from D.C., it was really, really nice to see familiar faces. I’m not missing the hustle and bustle of D.C. but I do miss my friends a little. We visited a few vineyards in Sonoma valley which was a fun trip.
Cherry season is one of my favorite things to look to every summer but sadly it is also one of the shortest. So this week, I’m going to share two easy recipes back to back, that use cherries and I hope you like them. We’ve been getting tons sweet cherries here at the farmer’s markets in California, so of course, yours truly has been partaking in eating copious amounts of these sweet little red bubbles of joy.
The first recipe this week is this delightful cherry pie that has a little kick of ginger in it. When I started out to develop this recipe, I wanted a pie with relatively little added sugar or sweeteners of any kind, this way I wouldn’t feel too guilty when I ate the pie and you could taste the tart and sweet flavors of the cherries in the pie. Different people have different salt and sugar taste sensitivities, so what I will recommend that if you like this pie on the sweeter side, taste the pie filling while making it and then add a teaspoon or two of sugar. I love the texture of crystallized bits of ginger in baked goods, so I’ve bumped up the notch here by adding a little. You can leave the ginger bits out too, the gingers bits are crystallized in sugar so they do sweeten the cherry filling a little.
I used my previous spelt crust recipe for this pie. This pie crust is very forgiving if it cracks during assembly, all you need to do is pressed the cracked ends together. Also, if you don’t want to use my pie crust recipe you can use your own or your favorite pre-made pie crust. Feel free to style the pie pastry as creatively as you want, just make sure you create enough holes or slits to allow the pie to ventilate. Cherries are very juicy and will release a lot of moisture and steam during baking.
Pies are such a delightful treat to bake, they are rustic and remind me of busy kitchens with wooden stoves on old farms. I think a pie should be as messy as can be, dripping with all the delicious flavors that it holds that entice you. So go ahead enjoy cherry season and make some pie!
cherry ginger pie with spelt crust
yields: one 9 inch pie
ingredients
Click here for the spelt pie crust ingredients
cherry pie filling
2 lbs sweet cherries, ripe
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1/4 cup crystallized ginger bits (optional)
1/4 cup crystallized ginger bits (optional)
1 teaspoon lime/lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 teaspoon madagascar bourbon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch powder
1 tablespoon water
1. Wash and drain the cherries in a colander. Pit the cherries and discard the pits. Place half of the cherries in a thick bottomed saucepan with the ginger, crystallized ginger bits, *sugar (optional) and lime juice. Heat the contents on a medium-high flame and bring to a boil. Reduce the flame to a gentle simmer, cover with a lid and stir occasionally. Cook for 5-6 minutes until the cherries have become soft and mushy. Remove the contents of the saucepan and puree in a blender, food processor or with an immersion blender until smooth. Return the puree back to the saucepan.
2. Add the vanilla and salt to the puree and bring the contents of the saucepan back to a boil on a medium-high flame. Whisk the cornstarch and the water in a small bowl and quickly mix into the puree. Stir until the puree thickens, this should take about a minute. Remove the saucepan from the stove and carefully fold the rest of the cherries into the puree. Cover the saucepan with a lid and allow it to sit for 30 minutes. Keep aside until ready to use.
Note: This pie filling can be prepared the day ahead and then refrigerated until ready to use.
Assembling & cooking the pastry and pie
1. Perform step1 to prepare the dough. Divide the dough into two equal parts, wrap with cling film and chill until ready to use.
2. Place a wire rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400F.
3. Roll out one disc of dough and line a 9 inch pie pan with it. Pour the cherry pie filling prepared earlier into the prepared pie pan lined with the pastry dough.
4. Roll out the second disc of pastry and cut out circles using the wider end of icing tip or a circular biscuit cutter (you can even use a small cookie cutter to make the holes extra special such as stars). Place the second sheet of pastry over the prepared pie and press the edges together and seal. Whisk the egg yolk with the water in a small bowl. Brush the surface of the pie with the egg yolk mixture.
5. Bake the pie in the oven for about 25-30 minutes until the crust turns golden brown. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake for another 35-40 minutes until the juices begin to bubble and the crust becomes a deep golden brown. Remove the pie from the oven and allow to cool for at least 2 hours on a wire rack before serving.
9 Responses
A marvelous pie! That crust must be very flavorful.
Cheers,
Rosa
yayyyyy cherry season!!!!! and yay for ginger! anything + ginger = a win in my book 🙂
crystallized ginger in baked goods sounds delightful.
You are totally right—Cherry Season is short. Gotta live it up while it's here. I realize I have never ever had a sweet cherry pie. I am going to fix that life oversight!!!!
yum looks delicious! love the flavour combination of cherries and ginger, thanks for the inspiration and awesome ideas.
Pies are my favouite sweet deities in the entire universe! This cherry rendition, with its rustic spelt crust, is brilliant. I always use the same sing-song all-butter crust recipe; I'm definitely bookmarking this for when my crust-making prowess wants to sprout wings. 😀
This pie is beautiful. Cherries and ginger are such a great combination! I made a cherry ginger fruit butter a few summers ago that I loved!
You nailed the flavor combo here!! Cherries are simply the best. I'm also very intrigued with the spelt crust. Great job!!
Once in a while I'll make a pie, but usually I'll go for a kuchen or crumble. Something more rustic. Mainly because I'm terrible at rolling out pie dough. This does look wonderful, though… you've inspired me. Also, I've yet to bake with spelt. The word scares me. :-/