cherries

Cherry Frangipane Tart – Cherrylishous!

Cherries are a Drake family favorite.  I have one sister who seems to live on sweet cherries all summer long.  I love them myself; a bowl of sweet and tangy cherries for dessert is the best! Once I made a whole dinner with cherries of one form or another in every recipe. Rave reviews from everyone.

Pies should be made with sour not sweet cherries.  Not sure why, cause you gotta add sugar anyway but it is the way of the cherry.  I love sour cherry pie…but, I never ate cherry pie as a kid because I couldn’t trust my mom to pick out any worms she saw in the home grown cherries she used for pies.  So I cheated myself out of many slices of delicious cherry pie.  This past summer I picked a lot of sour cherries and pitted them all.  One pie for now and the rest measured and frozen.  No worms, I promise!

At Christmas I made this yummy frangipane tart (almond tart) full of cherries for my family.  Yes, I used some of my frozen ones. Somehow I forgot to share it here on my blog.  Since it is the week we celebrate President’s Day [think George Washington and that cherry tree] it seemed appropriate to pass it on to you all.  Besides it is my “Year of the Pie” and tarts count! I totally want to make it again soon. Hmmnn, think there is one more bag of cherries in my freezer… christmas baking 2015 015

The recipe comes from my new bestie gf baking book; Gluten-Free Baking Classics The Heirloom Collection by Annalise Roberts. I didn’t change it at all.  Perfection with cherries. I am telling you, this cookbook is worth buying just for the pie section!

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Cherry Frangipane Tart

Crust:

1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)

2 tbsp sweet rice flour

1 Tbps. granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 lg egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 9 inch metal tart pan (with removable bottom) with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour.  I actually used a ten inch ceramic tart pan; worked fine too. Use the tart pan you have.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer.  Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.  Add egg and juice.  Mix until it comes together into big chunks.  Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes while you make the filling.

Roll out pie crust between the two sheets of wax paper; try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! My sister Karen gave me a pie bag last year and I love it for an even thin crust.  You can get one on line from King Arthur Flours.  Peel off one side of paper and place in pie pan, centered.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  Crimp edges all around.  Bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees, cool before filing. Crust can’t be hot or the almond and butter filling will melt when you spread it over the crust!

Filling:

½ c unsalted butter

½ cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup almond meal

1 tbsp. brown rice flour mix

1 tbsp. Amaretto

1 tsp. almond extract

½ tsp. salt

3 cups pitted sour cherries

Beat butter and sugar in bowl of large mixer until pale and fluffy. Add egg and other ingredients except cherries; beat it all together with a mixer at low speed until well blended.

Put tart together:

Fill cooled crust with frangipane mixture spread over bottom of the baked tart crust.  Then spread the pitted cherries evenly over the top. I put them on, one at a time to make sure they looked the best I could do.  No “just dump them” for this tart…

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 40-50 minutes, until tart is puffed and light brown across the whole surface.  Take out of the oven and cool at least 1 hour before removing the side ring.   Serve warm or close to room temperature. christmas baking 2015 015

Note: if you use frozen cherries; measure and weigh frozen. Let them defrost, pat off excess moisture and spread them over the filling.

Brown Rice Flour Mix (same as King Arthur GF Flour Mix)
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Three Cheers for Cherry Crumb Pie

Pie is a classic American dessert, what guy doesn’t like a fat slice of juicy pie? Cherry pie is perfect for the weeks before and after the Fourth of July or anytime you can get frozen sour cherries.  My sister sometimes uses jarred cherries but I prefer fresh or frozen sours.  You can make it gf easily with this recipe – this crust is really tasty; my family practically cheers when I serve homemade gf pie and they don’t eat gluten free. Another option is to buy a ready made unbaked crust and just use my crumb topping on it; very easy way to make a homemade pie.

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Fresh tasting, locally sourced fruits are exactly in the spirit of summer.  I picked mine at an orchard down in Bucks County near the Turnpike along Limekiln Pike, about 20 minutes from Hellertown. I hear Bechdolts Orchard has sour cherries too.

The sugar, cinnamon and almond extract combine to create an intense cherry flavor.  If you prefer a lattice it can be made by doubling this pie crust and some careful construction work.  I tend to go the easy route of the crumb as everyone loves it. You could make a smaller 8 inch pie; use a cup less fruit and cut the sugar some, ditto for the tapioca. If you ate tapioca you can use white rice flour instead. I baked mine on a pie ring that captures overflow juices; this is one juicy pie!

This pie is fantastic with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

This recipe is a blending of my own pie filling and the pie crust and crumb recipes from Annalise Robert’s cookbook, Gluten-Free Baking Classics.  I used a touch less sugar, more fruit, and made a few other changes to create my own special pie.  Her cookbook is a fabulous resource and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone trying to bake gluten free for a family member.  There is nothing like the classic desserts that we used to enjoy seasonally to comfort a celiac who can’t eat what they used to.

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Angie’s GF Cherry Crumb Pie

Crust:

1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)

2 tbsp sweet rice flour

1 Tbps. granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 lg egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 9 inch metal pie pan with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer.  Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.  Add egg and juice.  Mix until it comes together into big chunks.  Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes while you pit the fruit.

Filling:

6 cups pitted fresh sour cherries: place in medium bowl (If frozen do not defrost and bake the pie maybe ten extra minutes until good and bubbly)

Mix the following in a small bowl and pour over the cherries:

¾ cup granulated sugar

3-4 tbsp. tapioca flour

1/4 to ½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions: Roll out the pie crust between two sheets of wax paper or in a pie bag; try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! Peel off one side of paper and place in pie pan, centered.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  Crimp edges all around.  Fill with sweetened fruit mix.  Sprinkle the crumb topping (1 to 1½ cup) evenly over this mixture.  The more crumbs the thicker the crust they will form; for a really thick crust use all the crumbs from the recipe below.

If you love your pie really sweet add another ¼ cup granulated sugar to the dry mix part of the filling.  I found the pie to be plenty sweet but everyone has their own sweetness level.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes with a piece of aluminum foil on top of the pie, then 15-20 more minutes uncovered until bubbly and the crust is light brown.  Cool at least 2 hours before serving at room temperature.

Note: I bake pies in my bottom heat pizza oven and it gives me a great browned crust.  If your oven isn’t bottom heat you might want to pre-bake the crust 10 minutes before filling and topping the fruit.

Crumb topping

Put all four ingredients in the same mixing bowl you made the bottom crust in and mix well with mixer paddle until crumbs form. Don’t over mix or you will get a soft dough; not a good thing…done it and not happy with myself…

¾ c brown rice flour mix

½ c granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

1/3 c cold butter cut into six chunks

Brown Rice Flour Mix  (Same as King Arthur GF blend)
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Cherry Sunrise Pie for Easter

Next Sunday is Easter, the day of baked ham, chocolate candy eggs which I can’t eat and brightly colored eggs to hide for the three year old to find. I want our lunch dessert to be special yet not too heavy or fattening.  I want an attractive pie, with fruit in it and was hoping to make something easy.  I plan to have my cherry sunrise pie again; it was a big hit last Easter.

It has to have a gluten free crust for me but if you are making it for the wheat eating public there are ready made crusts out there that will make this so simple.  Frey’s Better Foods and Wegmans both have gf. graham cracker crust all ready to fill; so convenient.

I like this in the spring when there isn’t much fresh fruit available to make a decent pie.  You could make it the night before or early in the morning. I will post a picture of an individual slice this Easter when we enjoy it for lunch dessert; we gobbled it all down last year before I thought of taking a picture of just one slice.

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Cherry Sunrise Pie

One pie crust: bought ready-made or DIY.  I make mine from an 8 oz box of gluten free graham crackers crushed and mixed with 1/3 cup melted butter and pressed gently into a 9 inch pie pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 9 or 10 minutes.  Let cool completely before filling.  You can make it a day ahead of time to shorten the work of putting together the actual pie.

Ingredients for filling

18 or 19 oz can of crushed pineapple in own juice

1 21 oz can of cherry pie filling

1 8 oz pkg light cream cheese, room temp.

½ tsp vanilla

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup powdered sugar

Directions

Drain the pineapple for 20 min; save the juice!  I used my microwave to gently warm the cream cheese. I unwrapped it and placed the cold slab on a small plate and warmed it on a very low heat until supple and smooth.  Dump in a mixing bowl, add 2 tbsp pineapple juice, the vanilla, 1/3 cup crushed pineapple, ½ cup cherry pie filling.  If you are smart you will mostly use the goopy stuff and not too many cherries.  Save them for on top! Next, stir this all together really well.

Then whip the chilled heavy cream in a separate bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, add powdered sugar and mix well with the mixer; be careful not to over beat it.  If it gets clumpy you went too far.  Fold this into the cream cheese mix until it isn’t streaky with white areas.

Gently spoon the filling into the pie shell, spread it out to fill the entire bottom.  I used a spoonula (blend of spoon and spatula) and smooth the top with a flat cake spatula.  I like to leave a sort of tiny ridge on the outer edge to keep the pineapple from spilling out onto the crust.  Then carefully pour the rest of the cherry pie filling in the center spreading it to cover ¾ of the top from the center out.  Finally, use a spoon to put clumps of pineapple around the outer rim of the cherry filling.  Chill at least 2 hours, preferably 4.  Cut and slice. No adornments are needed.

It has a light fluffy consistency and it isn’t that sweet.  Great to top off a big meal; not too filling and the fresh fruity taste is a spring treat.  Try it soon and you will be giving the recipe out afterwards!

A Spring Pie to Remember and Pretty Easy Too!

ImageToday is Easter, the day of baked ham, chocolate candies and hardboiled eggs… We did the ham, the toddler had some chocolate and we enjoyed doing an egg hunt for him after lunch. But, I wanted the lunch dessert to be special yet not too heavy or fattening.  I wanted an attractive pie, with fruit in it and was hoping to make something easy.  A tall bill to fill for sure.  Upon some reflection I remembered a family dessert from a few years ago.  I am not sure why I stopped baking it other than I am gluten free and my dieting sisters balk at heavy cream in any recipe.  It was not that fattening if you look at just a slice, not the whole cup of cream in the pie! 

It has to have a gluten free crust for me but if you are making it for the wheat eating public there are redi-made crusts out there that will make this so simple

My sisters forked it down as they are cherry lovers, my aging mom ate every scrap and the kids were happy to eat large slices.   So I thought I should share it, you can make it anytime you want an easy company dessert.  

I like it in the spring, seems somehow appropriate and there isn’t much fresh fruit available to make a decent pie.  You could make it the night before or early in the morning. I did it this morning before church and it was chilled enough to eat by 1 pm. 

Cherry Sunrise Pie

One pie crust: I made mine from an 8 oz box of gluten free graham crackers crushed and mixed with 1/3 cup melted butter and pressed gently into a 9 inch pie pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 9 or 10 minutes.  Let cool completely before filling. I made mine the night before.

Ingredients for filling

18 or 19 oz can of crushed pineapple in own juice

1 21 oz can of cherry pie filling

1 8 oz pkg light cream cheese, room temp.

½ tsp vanilla

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup powdered sugar

Directions

Drain the pineapple for 20 min; save the juice!  I used my microwave to gently warm the cream cheese. I unwrapped it and placed the cold slab on a small plate and warmed it on a very low heat until supple and smooth.  Dump in a mixing bowl, add 2 tbsp pineapple juice, the vanilla, 1/3 cup crushed pineapple, ½ cup cherry pie filling.  If you are smart you will mostly use the goopy stuff and not too many cherries.  Save them for on top! Next, stir this all together really well. 

Then whip the chilled heavy cream in a separate bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, add powdered sugar and mix well with the mixer; be careful not to over beat it.  If it gets clumpy you went too far.  Fold this into the cream cheese mix until it isn’t streaky with white areas.

Gently spoon the filling into the pie shell, spread it out to fill the entire bottom.  I used a spoonula (blend of spoon and spatula) and smooth the top with a flat cake spatula.  I like to leave a sort of tiny ridge on the outer edge to keep the pineapple from spilling out onto the crust.  Then carefully pour the rest of the cherry pie filling in the center spreading it to cover ¾ of the top from the center out.  Finally, use a spoon to put clumps of pineapple around the outer rim of the cherry filling.  Chill at least 2 hours, preferably 4.  Cut and slice. No adornments are needed.

It has a light fluffy consistency and it isn’t that sweet.  Great to top off a big meal; not too filling and the fresh fruity taste is a spring treat.  Try it soon and you will be giving the recipe out afterwards!