sour cherry

This is a composite sketch of the perfect cherry pie. The buttery, well-seasoned crust is adapted from the Cherry Pie That’ll Kill Ya at Butter and Scotch, a bar and bakery in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, that holds an occasional Twin Peaks Tuesday, with cocktails and diner foods named after the characters in David Lynch’s quirky 1990s television show. It uses a mock buttermilk crust, meaning that you curdle regular whole milk with apple cider vinegar instead of having to buy buttermilk. Instructions are given for a lattice top, but you could make it with a double crust or the chevron shown here, depending on your mood. The filling is all about maximizing the flavor of pure sour cherries (sometimes labeled pie cherries). This is the pie to make at the height of sour-cherry season, or using a bounty you freeze yourself (see the tip below). Frozen sour cherries are also available online. The pie will keep for up to five days, refrigerated and wrapped in plastic.

‘Twin Peaks’ Cherry Pie

120 milliliters cold whole milk, plus more if needed

apple cider vinegar

unbleached all-purpose flour

sugar

salt

(2 sticks) cold unsalted butter,

60 milliliters whole milk

Raw sugar,

granulated sugar (see tip)

cornstarch

fine sea salt

cherry liqueur

Make the crust: In a liquid measuring cup, stir together the milk and vinegar. In a large mixing bowl, toss the flour, sugar and salt with a fork to combine. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter cubes until the butter is the size of small peas. Using a fork or large spoon, slowly add the liquid in 4 or 5 additions, stopping after every pour to combine, until the dough just sticks together. Knead lightly in the bowl until it forms a taut ball.

Separate dough into 2 equal-size disks and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour. (Dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 2 months.)

Make the filling: Mix the cherries, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium-size saucepan and cook over medium heat until cherries thaw (if frozen) and the cornstarch and sugar dissolve. Reduce heat to medium-low, stirring occasionally to keep cherries from burning, and cook until the mixture thickens slightly. (Total cooking time should be about 20 minutes.) Add liqueur, stir and remove from heat. Let cool to room temperature.

Assemble the pie: Heat oven to 425 degrees. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out 1 disk of dough into a 1/8-inch (3 millimeters) thick circle about 15 inches (38 centimeters) in diameter. Transfer to a 9-inch/23 centimeter deep-dish pie plate and chill in refrigerator as you work on the top crust.

Working quickly, roll out a second disk into an 1/8-inch (3 millimeters) thick rectangle about 15 inches (38 centimeters) long and 12 inches (30 centimeters) wide. Cut into 6 strips about 2 inches (5 centimeters) wide. Remove pie plate from refrigerator and fill with cherry filling. Weave lattice strips over the top. Seal, trim and crimp the edges. Or cut dough into five zigzag strips and lay on top of pie filling, trimming excess.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg and milk to make an egg wash. Brush the crust with it, and sprinkle with raw sugar.

On a baking sheet, bake pie for 20 minutes at 425 degrees, rotating once halfway through. Lower heat to 350 degrees and bake another 30 to 40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the filling is thick and glossy. Juice may bubble onto baking sheet. Remove pie to wire rack to cool before serving. The pie can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Crunchy cucumber, cool yogurt and the surprise of tart cherries make this salad alluring, especially when paired with a hot, savory stew, soup or tagine.  During Ramadan, the month of the year when observant Muslims fast during daylight hours, it is delicious for iftar, the meal that breaks the fast at sunset. Try it with <a href="http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/8073-harira">harira</a>, the traditional Moroccan iftar dish: a fragrant lamb-tomato soup with chickpeas, lentils and vermicelli. Add a pretty bowl of dates — the food Muslims traditionally eat first to break the fast — and the meal is complete. 

Both spice and craft shops sell food-grade dried rose petals, or you can make your own by hanging a bouquet of (organically raised) roses upside down to dry.

Cucumber Yogurt Salad With Dill, Sour Cherries and Rose Petals

garlic cloves, finely grated or minced

yogurt

lemon juice

dill,

mint

Persian cucumbers,

Sea salt

pistachios

rose petals, crushed

sour cherries,

mint,

Extra-virgin olive oil,

In a medium bowl, whisk together the garlic with the yogurt, lemon juice, dill and dried mint. Fold in the cucumbers and season with salt to taste.

Spoon into a serving bowl and garnish with the pistachios, rose petals, dried cherries, fresh mint and dill leaves. Drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil and serve immediately.

Faloodeh is an ancient Persian dessert, a sort of granita threaded with rice noodles and spiked with rose water and lime. Though you may typically cook noodles until al dente, you’ll need to really cook them through here before adding them to the syrup so that they soak up enough liquid to become as crunchy as possible as they freeze. In Iran, most ice cream shops sell just two items: traditional saffron ice cream and faloodeh, which is typically topped with bottled lime juice that tastes mostly of citric acid. Faloodeh has been my favorite since childhood, but now I prefer it with the juice of freshly squeezed limes. It’s incredibly refreshing and the ideal end to a rich meal filled with complex flavors.

Faloodeh (Persian Lime and Rose Water Granita With Rice Noodles)

lime juice,

rose water

rice noodles or rice vermicelli

Place 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and set over low heat. Add about half the sugar and stir to dissolve completely. Add 1/8 teaspoon salt and the rest of the sugar and continue stirring until completely dissolved. Take off the heat and let cool to room temperature.

In a freezer-safe bowl or dish, stir together 4 cups water, cooled syrup, lime juice and rose water, then place in freezer until ice crystals begin to form on the edges of the mixture, about 1 hour.

In a medium pot, bring 4 quarts water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook thoroughly until there is no bite left, about 8 minutes or as instructed on the package. Drain and rinse immediately with cold water. Use scissors to cut noodles into 1-inch pieces, then stir them into the partly frozen syrup mixture. It’s important that the mixture has begun to freeze before adding the noodles so that they don’t all sink to the bottom of the dish, so if your syrup mixture needs more time, freeze for another hour before adding noodles.

Every hour for the next several hours, scrape the granita thoroughly with a fork to prevent huge icy chunks from forming. The mixture should be light and airy, punctuated with crunchy noodles.

To serve, scrape and serve bowlfuls of faloodeh with lime wedges.

If you’re lucky enough to have more sour cherries than you need to make a pie, save them for this sweet and tangy chicken dish. The cherries are briefly simmered with sugar, vinegar and a bay leaf, then added to a sheet pan to roast alongside boneless, skinless chicken thighs and wedges of red onion. As they cook, the cherries absorb the chicken juices, becoming very savory and concentrated. Then, the whole thing is topped with dollops of cooling cucumber yogurt. Serve it with bread or rice to catch the juices at the bottom of the pan. If you can’t get sour cherries, you can substitute seedless red or green grapes.

Chicken Thighs With Sour Cherries and Cucumber Yogurt

chicken thighs

red onion,

black pepper, plus more as needed

tarragon,

extra-virgin olive oil,

rice vinegar

bay leaf

thinly sliced cucumbers, preferably Persian cucumbers

plain whole-milk yogurt

Flaky sea salt,

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine chicken and onion on a rimmed sheet pan. Toss with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper. Add tarragon and 1 1/2 tablespoons oil, and toss to combine. Let stand at room temperature while preparing other ingredients.

In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar, bay leaf and remaining 1 teaspoon salt over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar.

Place sliced cucumbers in medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the vinegar solution to cucumbers and toss. Set aside.

Return pan to medium-low heat and add another tablespoon sugar. Once sugar dissolves, stir in cherries. Cook until cherries are slightly broken down, 3 to 4 minutes. Taste and add more sugar if the cherries still seem very tart. (You’re not looking for them to be sweet, just balanced.)

Spoon cherries and their juices around chicken and onions. (It’s OK if some cherries are on top of chicken and onions.) Roast until chicken is cooked through and cherries and onions are lightly browned in spots, 30 to 35 minutes. Give the dish a big stir and spoon the savory pan juices all over the top of the chicken.

While the chicken is roasting, stir yogurt and remaining 1 tablespoon oil into the bowl with the pickled cucumbers. Season with a large pinch of salt and black pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Just before serving, stir well, taste and add more salt if needed.

Top chicken and cherries with a large dollop of cucumber yogurt, more tarragon and a drizzle of olive oil, then sprinkle with flaky sea salt or more kosher salt, if you like.

Here is an intensely buttery, crispy-crust pie that exudes loads of syrupy cherry nectar when you plunge in the knife. In a quirk of pie-making tradition, open-faced pies, like custards, chocolate cream or pumpkin chiffon, get the best crust — pre-baked shells that are flaky, crisp and golden. But fruit pies, baked with raw dough that is often pale and soggy, get short shrift. For a fruit-pie crust that is crunchy and flaky, with a buttery texture that absorbs the fruit’s juices without turning to mush, the secret is pre-baking the bottom crust, then adding the fruit, covering it with raw dough and baking it again.

Twice-Baked Sour Cherry Pie

unsalted butter,

instant tapioca

cinnamon

sour cherries (about 6 cups), rinsed and pitted

kirsch

heavy cream

Demerara sugar,

To make dough: in bowl of a food processor pulse together flour and salt just to combine. Add butter and pulse until chickpea-size pieces form. Add 3 to 6 tablespoons ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until mixture just comes together. Separate dough into 2 disks, one using 2/3 dough, the other using the remaining. Wrap disks in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour (and up to 3 days) before rolling out and baking.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place larger dough disk on a lightly floured surface and roll into a 12-inch circle, about 3/8-inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate. Line dough with foil and weigh it down with pie weights. Bake until crust is light golden brown, about 30 minutes.

While pie crust is baking, prepare filling. In bowl of a food processor, combine sugar, tapioca and cinnamon (use more tapioca if you prefer a thicker, more solid filling, and less if you like a looser, juicier filling). Run the motor until tapioca is finely ground. Place cherries in a bowl and add sugar and tapioca mixture. Drizzle in kirsch or brandy and toss gently to combine.

When pie crust is ready, transfer it to a wire rack to cool slightly and reduce heat to 375 degrees. Remove foil and weights. Scrape cherry filling into pie crust.

Place smaller disk of dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it 3/8-inch thick. Use a round cookie cutter (or several round cookie cutters of different sizes) to cut out circles of dough. Arrange circles on top of cherry filling in a pattern of your choice.

Brush top crust with cream and sprinkle generously with Demerara sugar. Bake until crust is dark golden brown and filling begins to bubble, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool for at least 2 hours, allowing filling to set before serving.

Macerated Sour Cherries And Mascarpone Cream

sour

lemon verbena leaves

mace

riesling

mascarpone cheese

In a large nonreactive bowl, mix cherries, lemon verbena, sugar, mace and wine. Cover tightly, and macerate at least 24 hours.

Strain and set aside cherries, reserving juice. Remove lemon verbena leaves from strainer, and add to juice.

Put juice in blender, and blend it fine. Strain through medium strainer, pressing to extract all liquid. Pour juice over cherries, reserving 1/4 cup.

In small bowl, soften cheese with spatula; slowly stir in reserved juice until mixture is smooth.

Combine cream and sugar in another bowl, and beat until soft peaks form. Fold cream into mascarpone.

To serve, divide mascarpone into 4 bowls. Pour cherries and juice over cheese. Top each serving with pinch of mace.

Gloria Zimmerman picks well-ripened sour cherries from the cherry tree in a friend's yard each summer, pits them and freezes them. Although this tart can be made with sweet cherries, it is better made with sour cherries. The pate brisee recipe is very rich and must be handled with care to make it conform to the tart mold. The unglazed tart should not be refrigerated; it should be served while still lukewarm - difficult to do in a restaurant - with strong coffee.

Sour Cherry Tart

flour (4 ounces)

(3 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

water

sour cherries, pitted

tapioca

almond extract

almonds sugar

For the pate brisee, place the flour, sugar, salt and butter pieces in owl and crush the butter into the dry ingredients with the tips of your fingers until combined somewhat but with pieces of butter still visible in the mixture. Add the ice water and stir with a fork just until the mixture holds together. Gather it up, pressing it between your hands to flatten it and make it round, and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for one hour.

Rub a small amount of flour into a pastry cloth and roll the dough into a very thin circle, about 12 1/2 inches in diameter. Roll the dough onto the rolling pin and gently fit it into the bottom and up the sides of an 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough against the sides of the pan to fill in any holes and make it adhere to the metal. Remove any excess overhanging dough by rolling the rolling pin across the top of the pan. Refrigerate the tart shell for one hour.

Meanwhile, in a bowl combine the cherries, tapioca, sugar and almond extract. Sprinkle the ground almond-sugar mixture in the pastry shell and arrange the cherry mixture on top. Place the tart pan on a cookie sheet and bake in a 400-degree oven for one to one-and-a-quarter hours, until the dough is nicely browned. Unmold and serve with strong coffee.

Hot cross brioche? This sweet treat is the combo you never knew you needed.

Saffron, sour cherry and pistachio hot cross brioche recipe

(55 grams) caster sugar

(about 1 sachet) dried yeast

lemon

milk saffron threads

eggs, room temperature

unsalted butter, softened, chopped

sour cherries

candied orange, diced

slivered pistachios

(75 grams) caster sugar

Step 1

Combine flour, sugar, yeast, lemon zest, cinnamon and 1/2 tsp salt flakes in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add milk mixture and eggs and mix on medium speed to combine. Gradually add butter and knead to combine.

Step 2

Add sour cherries, candied orange and pistachios and knead for 4-5 minutes until shiny and elastic. Transfer to a lightly buttered bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and stand in a warm place for 1 hour 30 minutes-2 hours until doubled in size.

Step 3

Knock back dough on a lightly floured surface, divide into 12 pieces, roll into balls and arrange in a 20cm x 30cm slice pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for 30-40 minutes until risen by half.

Step 4

Step 5

To make the crosses, mix extra flour and 1/4 cup cold water in a small bowl to form a smooth paste. Transfer to a zip-lock bag and cut a small hole in one corner. Pipe a cross on each bun and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

Step 6

Meanwhile for the lemon glaze, stir sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, bring to the boil and remove from heat. Brush thickly over warm buns, pour any remaining glaze over the buns and serve warm or at room temperature. Buns are best eaten on the day they are made, or toasted within a day or two of baking.

Top 8 sour cherry recipes from across the web

The most viewed sour cherry recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Top Tags

‘Twin Peaks’ Cherry Pie

Cucumber Yogurt Salad With Dill, So...

Faloodeh (Persian Lime and Rose Wat...

Chicken Thighs With Sour Cherries a...

Twice-Baked Sour Cherry Pie

Macerated Sour Cherries And Mascarp...

Sour Cherry Tart

Saffron, sour cherry and pistachio ...

Top 8 sour cherry recipes from across the web

The most viewed sour cherry recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

‘Twin Peaks’ Cherry Pie

Cucumber Yogurt Salad With Dill, So...

Faloodeh (Persian Lime and Rose Wat...

Chicken Thighs With Sour Cherries a...

Twice-Baked Sour Cherry Pie

Macerated Sour Cherries And Mascarp...

Sour Cherry Tart

Saffron, sour cherry and pistachio ...

The most viewed sour cherry recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine