Ingredient: sour cherries, pitted (fresh or frozen)

Sweet & Sour Cherry Pastries

There are two basic types of cherries grown in North America: sweet and sour. Sour cherries are also known as tart, pie cherries, or red cherries.

Cherries are not native to North America, in fact both the sweet and sour varieties were brought to Canada and the U.S. in the 1600s by French and English settlers. The plants, especially the sour varieties, adapted well to our climate.
Sour cherries are a hardier plant than the sweet variety and are well-suited to growing in slightly cooler climates. Commercial production didn’t begin here until the 1800s. 

This recipe is made with sour cherries, so it has that sweet and sour ‘thing’ going on that makes it so good! Homemade sour cherry pie filling is perfect for all kinds of baked goods, such as crisp, puff pastries, pies, galettes, as a cake filling or by itself with a scoop of ice cream.

You can use fresh or frozen sour cherries. I love using frozen cherries personally, because I’ve already pitted them, but this recipe is great with fresh cherries too.

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 Sweet & Sour Cherry Pastries
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword sour cherry puff pastries
Servings
Ingredients
Sour Cherry Filling
Pastry
Course dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword sour cherry puff pastries
Servings
Ingredients
Sour Cherry Filling
Pastry
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Sour Cherry Filling
  1. In a saucepan, whisk together sugar, cornstarch & salt. Add juice (water) & stir to thoroughly combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Simmer until thickened, about 2 minutes; immediately remove from heat. Gradually fold in cherries; cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
Assembly & Baking
  1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Roll the thawed puff pastry out on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar or flour into a large square.
  2. Cut into 2 1/2-inch squares, using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter; cut about 1-inch into each corner. Drop a tablespoon of the sour cherry filling in the center of each puff pastry square.
  3. Brush the pastry with beaten egg then fold one corner into the center, allowing for a slight overlap. Repeat with the other corners to make a windmill shape. Slightly pinch corners together if needed.
  4. Sprinkle with coarse sanding sugar and bake until they are golden and firm (about 12-15 minutes) where they have puffed up on the sides. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Notes
  • Cut pastry squares as big or small as you wish.

Sour Cherry & Saskatoon Galette

Fresh fruit in the summer is one of life’s simple pleasures …. juicy, sweet and/or tart …. they’re like summer jewels.

The saskatoon berry is one of North America’s great unappreciated fruits. Although its easy to confuse them with blueberries, the two fruits are quite dissimilar. The most distinctive feature of saskatoon berries is their almond-like flavor. Saskatoons are in the same branch of the rose family that includes apples, pears, hawthorn and quince.

These little gems are a truly wonderful Canadian fruit with the bulk of their natural range being in British Columbia and the prairie provinces. Come July, many of the U-Pick farms in our area have fresh saskatoons ripening on their trees.

Pairing sour cherries with saskatoons in this dessert is a perfect match. One is tart and juicy, the other is sweet and plump making a good balance.

The (sour) ‘prairie’ cherry was developed in Canada for colder climates. It was cross pollinated with a Mongolian cherry resulting in very hardy, trees producing a sweet-tart cherry.

Our little cherry tree is about 12 years old now. Since I have both of these fruits on hand right now, there is no reason to not make this galette!

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 Sour Cherry & Saskatoon Galette
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course dessert
Cuisine American, European, French, German
Keyword sour cherry & Saskatoon tart
Servings
Ingredients
Berry Filling
Cornmeal Pastry
Course dessert
Cuisine American, European, French, German
Keyword sour cherry & Saskatoon tart
Servings
Ingredients
Berry Filling
Cornmeal Pastry
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Cornmeal Pastry
  1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt & sugar. Add butter & with fingertips, blend until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water & combine only until blended, do NOT overmix.
  2. Divide pastry into 8 equal portions & press into mini galette pan cups. Place in refrigerator until filling is ready to use.
Berry Filling
  1. In a large bowl, combine berries, cherries & sugars. In a small dish, mix lemon juice with cornstarch & add to berry mixture.
Assembly
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  2. Remove pastry from fridge. Mound the berry mixture in each galette cup. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown & bubbly.
  3. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Recipe Notes
  • Don't hesitate to make this into one round galette instead of individuals or to use frozen puff pastry. It will all taste just as good, believe me!

Sour Cherry Custard Buns

Fall is that time of year that we can enjoy some more of those wonderful cherries from our own little tree. The fact that we live in the northern part of Alberta, Canada and can eat cherries fresh from our tree is such a bonus.

Even though these cherries are classed as a semi-sweet variety, there are still endless ways to enjoy them. When I was growing up, I remember my mother making something she called ‘dampfnudeln’. The taste was wonderful and as I recall, these were sweet yeast dumplings in a vanilla custard sauce. I’m not sure if they had anything in the center or not.

It seems there are endless recipes and preparations, variations on recipes and variations on variations …. ROHRNUDELN, HEFENUDELN, GERMKNODEL, DAMPFNUDELN, BUCHTELN and on and on. Basically they are all yeast dumplings, sweet (or savory) but the preparation varies somewhat. Some are poached in a milk/sugar liquid, whereas others are baked. Some are filled, some not. Most seem to be served with a vanilla custard.

For mine, I’m trying to incorporate some of our cherries in a soft, sweet yeast bun with some vanilla custard. I think I’ll call them ‘dampfbuchteln’. Buchteln are a typical Bohemian dish from the region in the middle of Europe that was formerly German. It was from there that recipes like this made their way into German and Austrian kitchens. That name seems fitting, having the characteristics of both kinds of buns.

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 Sour Cherry Custard Buns
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American, European, German
Servings
Ingredients
Sour Cherry Compote
Sweet Roll Dough
Vanilla Custard
Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American, European, German
Servings
Ingredients
Sour Cherry Compote
Sweet Roll Dough
Vanilla Custard
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Sour Cherry Compote
  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch & salt; add juice & stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, simmer until thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Immediately remove from heat. Gradually fold in cherries. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. I found it easier to make the compote a day ahead of the buns.
Sweet Roll Dough
  1. In a small dish, heat milk to lukewarm. Add yeast & 1 tsp sugar; let sit for 5 minutes to allow yeast to activate. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 1/4 cup sugar, melted butter, sour cream & egg. Add yeast mixture & stir to combine.
  2. In another bowl, whisk together flour & salt. Add flour mixture to yeast mixture, 1 cup at a time combining well after each addition. Once the flour has all been added, knead on a lightly floured surface for about 2 minutes.
  3. Lightly grease the large bowl, place dough in it & cover with plastic & a tea towel. Allow to rise for at least 1 hour in a draft free place until dough has doubled in volume.
  4. Punch dough down & turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into 12 equal sized pieces & roll each into a ball. Place under a tea towel so they won't dry out. Take one ball & shape it into a flat circle large enough to hold a spoonful of compote.
  5. Fold over & pinch the edges, then carefully shape into a ball again. Place in a buttered 12-inch spring form pan, seam side down. Repeat with remaining dough balls. Cover with tea towel & let rise for another 30 minutes.
  6. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake buns for about 20-25 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven; cool for just a few minutes then pat with butter. When completely cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar if you wish.
Vanilla Custard
  1. Sift together cornstarch & flour. Using a whisk, combine the beaten eggs & the flour mixture until powders are dissolved. In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together milk, sugar & salt. Once sugar & salt are dissolved, add in the egg mixture & keep stirring everything until the mixture is thickened. Remove from heat & stir in butter & vanilla. Nice to serve warm under the cherry buns.