What’s not to love about fresh cherries?! Besides having a wonderful taste, they have many health benefits as well. In Alberta, we start seeing cherries in the grocery stores about early June. For most part they come from British Columbia, Canada. Of course, ‘Bing’ is probably the most widely known variety because of it’s size and sweetness. As the ‘season’ rolls along, the price comes down somewhat but what fruit lover could resist them?
In an earlier blog, I mentioned that Brion and I had spent three months in Cuenca, Ecuador in 2015. At some point, during that time, the street vendors chants rang through Cuenca’s streets encouraging passersby to purchase their in-season, pick-of-the-crop fresh cherries. A half of a kilo (a little over a pound) sold for 1 to 2 dollars, depending on the vendor and the time of day. CERAZAS! CERAZAS! CERAZAS! was the mantra as they navigated ‘wheel borrows’through Cuenca’s streets broad and narrow. As long as they were available, we always made sure we would buy some on our way back from our daily walks.
About four years ago we planted a northern cherry tree, called ‘Cupid’ in our back yard. It would be classed as a sour or semi-sweet cherry. Although it is very young and doing well, it will be a while before we will have a wheel borrow full of cherries from it.
There are lots of great fresh cherry scone recipes it seems. Even so, why not try to tweek the recipe yet again. Hope you enjoy this version with some of those fresh cherries.
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- 1/3 cup almonds
- 1/3 cup oatmeal
- 1 1/2 tsp anise seed
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 1/2 tsps baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup margarine
- 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp almond flavoring
- 1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, pitted & halved
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a blender or food processor, pulse almonds until coarsely ground. Add oatmeal & anise seed; repeat process for a few more seconds. Add flour, sugar, baking powder & salt; whirl only until combined. Add margarine & pulse slightly, transfer to a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, beat together yogurt, egg & almond flavoring. Combine wet & dry ingredients, mixing only until just mixed.
- On a sheet of parchment paper, pat or roll the dough into a 12" square. Place cherry halves evenly over the dough, pressing in gently. Using the parchment, fold 1/3 of dough over, then repeat with opposite side of dough. Pinch seams together. Place log seam side down and flatten into a long rectangle using your palms, approximately 12" x 4". Using a sharp knife cut 14 wedges.
- Space out on parchment paper or transfer to a new sheet on baking pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until test done.
- Cherries can be carefully folded into batter and then scooped onto baking sheet instead of making wedges if you prefer.