Sweeter Than Cherry Pie

Hello Sweets,

I hope y'all are enjoying your weekend, did you plan something fun and outdoorsy?  I was dog sitting for my sister and man are those dogs a handful!  Lol don't get me wrong I'm a lover of all fur babies, but try taking those two for a walk and it's a full blow production.  Pulling this way, rolling in grass over there, getting tangled up with each other, and trying to take their muzzle off :/  I would have taken them for a longer walk, but just going around two blocks had both my shoulders and patience worn down (I looked for a pic of them but I don't have one).  None the less I enjoyed some sunshine and that's what my doctors ordered :)

Today is the first in a series of six, of sweet and tiny posts :)  Yesterday's post on pie pastry was a little hint, along with tiny and sweet remarks as to what the next six posts would be about.  Have you guessed yet?  If you guessed mini pies then you, my dear reader, would be correct!  A few weeks ago I went to the farmers market with my grandparents, it's huge and full of vendors selling fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and breads.  Being the single person (living situation that is) that I am I cannot eat everything I purchased all at once, so I froze portions of all the fruit to use later.

 pretty sweet haul right?

I love this time of year because there is an abundance of fresh fruit and TONS of local produce, I'm a big supporter of local if you can get it :)  Earlier this week I started craving pie lol, and me being the single person I am (damn I need my man at my side :( ) I thought it would be extremely wasteful to make a whole pie for myself.  Then I thought "well, what about a tiny pie?", and that just got me thinking of my wonderful frozen bounty :D  Anyone that knows me, knows I love EVERYTHING cherry.  Whether it's edible like pie, ice cream, or just in the simple and fresh way to even clothes.  Yup you read that right I have a cherry dress (it's one of only 3 made), tank top, earrings, a necklace, and at one point I even had slip on runners (sadly I wore them out).  Recently my mom handed me some clippings out of a magazine of even more cherry themed clothing, and take a gander at these babies;

 hey Nathan, need an idea for an anniversary gift lol *hint hint*

Yup I loooove cherries, so that is the first pie filling I decided to make.  Using the dough from yesterdays post I set out to make tiny open faced cherry pies.  This was the first time I've made cherry pie filling from scratch and it is unbelievably good, I probably won't use any other unless it's an even better version lol ;)  Anyways enough talk about shoes and grocery hauls, lets get to the sweet stuff!  *you will notice my batch is very small, this is because I cut it into 1/3*

Sweet Cherry Pie Filling

Ingredients

2C cherries, pitted and halved

1Tbs water

1/3C sugar

2Tbs cornstarch

1/2Tsp cinnamon

a teeny tiny bit of salt

1Tbs lime juice

 

*juice is because they were frozen*

Directions:

1)  In a medium saucepan; heat cherries and water over medium heat until they release their juice and soften (10 mins max).

 

2)  In a small bowl; whisk together dry ingredients.

 

3)  When the cherries are done, add the dry mixture into the pan and mix thoroughly to combine.  Heat, stirring constantly until the mix becomes thick and jam-like (2 mins).

4)  Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice.  Transfer to a container (plastic or mason jar), and let it cool in the fridge.

 

so much better than the canned stuff

To Assemble the Tiny Pies:

1)  Preheat oven to 325F.  Roll out your dough until it's about  1/2" thick.  Cut out circles, I used a coffee cup.

 

 2)  Spray muffin tins with cooking spray (I used olive oil, it worked like a charm!), drop the dough gently into the cups and gently mold it to the pan.  Add a spoonful of your mixture into each cup.

 

 3)  Place them in your pre heated oven and bake for 17 minutes, or until the pastry starts to turn a light golden brown.  Cool on wire rack, and enjoy!

 

As I am finishing this post I'm enjoying one of these bad boys :)  They're not overly sweet, the lime juice actually gives it a little bit of tartness to balance out the sugars.  The pastry is sturdy but not tough, it's actually very flaky and soft.  As you can tell by the second to last picture, there are many more flavors to come.  Over the next five days you'll get them all so y'all can try them out too!

I'm very proud of myself, as I feel as though now I have mastered pies and feel confident when making them.  Next on my radar will be butter tarts (I loooove them lol), or more delicate pastries.  Then again you know me I'm always trying many different things, who knows what will intrigue me next :)  Until next time...............................


Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxoxo