Sour Cherry Crumb Cake - How to Pit Sour Cherries

Through a local Philadelphia farm, I have been receiving fresh produce twice a month (I'm sharing with a work colleague)! I thought it would be a great thing to do- not only does it make me go somewhere else to pick up the food, but I'm supporting local farms and eating organic and fresh produce. I also thought that this would help introduce Steve and I to other veggies we wouldn't normally pick up at the grocery store. Two weeks ago, we received beets: I've never liked beets, but after I thought about it, I guess I never really gave them a try. Well, I oven roasted the beets, cooled them, and tossed them in a salad with beet greens, oranges and basalmic. The salad was nice, but I really did not care for the beets. At least I tried and this reaffirmed that I can always pass on the beets at dinner parties.

Last week, we received sour cherries in our produce share. I was excited because cherries are my favorite fruit and they are super expensive this season so paying out of pocket was out of the question. I guess I overlooked the name of the fruit.. SOUR cherries. Not good for simply eating. So, to the internet of recipes I started to look. I came across a Martha Stewart recipe for a Sour Cherry Crumb Cake and I stuck with it. Like I always say, her recipes come out perfectly and are always something I would bake again.


Then I realized that the cherries have pits- how do I pit cherries? or can I leave the pits in and work around that when I eat the dessert? I googled how to pit a cherry- most said to use a pitter, or some sort of small metal hook to get them out. Using what I have in the house, I got the hang of pitting a cherry after the second or third try. Here's how I did it:


Tools: toothpicks, two bowls

1. Have two bowls ready: one for your pitted cherries, and one to save the pits (I found another simple recipe to recycle the pits).

2. Take the stem off the cherry

3. Inset tooth pick where you removed the stem- feel the toothpick hit the pit and move the toothpick around the sides of the pit like you're setting it free for the rest of the cherry.

4. Gently squeeze the cherry and the pit should pop out! I did this over the sink and put my bowl in the sink to catch the pits which I was saving for later. If the pit doesn't pop out, use the toothpick to sort of pry it out.

5. Make sure you have a lot of time saved to pit your cherries- I had enough time while pitting to listen to a whole record, make a soy latte, and take a few breaks.












Ways I adjusted or changed the recipe:
1. The recipe requires a 9"x9" cake pan, but I had to use a 9"x13" because that's all I have! But not for long - woohoo wedding registries!
2. There is no baking time for this recipe: just bake until golden and a tester comes out clean. I don't work well with those sorts of recipes because I will either a. check the cake too much thus the temperature of the oven is never consistant or b. forget about the cake and wander to a different project until I run into the kitchen screaming when the cake is almost in flames. To avoid either of these, I set an initial time for 30 minutes, and then kept adding time after that as I saw necessary. The cake ended up baking for 50 minutes. This time might change for you if you use a 9"x9" pan, or a darker colored pan.



Here are the layers of the cake, pre-assembly: a floured cake dish, the cake dough, pitted sour cherries, and the crumble topping.

and of course, a photo of the first slice! The only time I will eat dessert before dinner :)

It turned out really well! The cherries are still tart, but not mouth puckering. The super sweet crumble is a great juxtaposition and fits well with the moist cake. Mmmm, seconds please!



***Note: Sour cherries have a short season - only a bit of June and a bit of July. So if you can find them, pick them up and try a new recipe with them! Or make preserves to have in the wintertime!***

Christmas happenings...

I've been baking and making the last few weeks, preparing for Christmas goodies. Crocheting items for family and friends has been a must, and I will admit, I will be crocheting until I pull into the driveway of my parents house (I'm not driving, don't worry. don't crochet and drive, people).



I decided to make these for my dad and his infamous mustache: I had a pattern I was using, but it didn't work out (at all), so I made up this pattern. If anyone is interested, I could write out this pattern, it's super easy (and probably not technically correct, but it works!).. (I could not get this image to upload properly, hence why it is on it's side... you get the idea).












Also, made my mom's aunt mary's pizzelle cookies for steve's two grandma's... they both loved receiving them and telling us they were not going to share with anyone. ah, the holiday spirit!


















and finally, I made this recipe by martha stewart (no lies, she has the best recipes that ALWAYS work)... they are called chocolate crackle cookies.
I used super, super, dark chocolate (85% cocoa, I don't know why I bought that bar... but when I went to use the package, I noticed it had been opened and someone snuck a piece of chocolate. not to my surprise, it was only a tiny piece. i asked steve why he ate it, and of course he thought it was going to be yummy chocolate which he thought he could sneak from me... well, it was so bitter, he only had a nibble and put it back!). anywho, i mixed half the super strong chocolate with another half of chocolate chips, and it made the cookies really rich and yummy! the kind of cookie you can have one of and be done with (or 3 in steve's case).

Apricot (and blueberry) Pie with Coconut Crumble

Another Martha Stewart pie recipe! In her June issue of "Martha Stewart Living," she had about a dozen pie recipes that I pulled out to make throughout the summer when the different fruits are in season. This week, I decided to make this pie, an apricot pie with coconut crumble. When I bought the apricots, I realized I've never really had an apricot. As in, never bought and apricot to take a bite out of an enjoy as a piece of fruit. I've probably had plenty of dried apricots due to my mother loving weird dried fruits, but never a fresh piece.

I thought I bought enough apricots to fill a 9" pie, but I was wrong. So to fill out the missing spaces, I added about a cup and a half of fresh blueberries. I figured you can never go wrong adding blueberries into a pie. And, halfway through making, I realized I only had enough brown sugar for half of what the recipe called for. So, extra organic cane sugar was added along with a secret mom ingredient. Oh, and I did toast sweetened coconut shavings for the top of the pie... yum! Which reminds me, where's my pina colada?

I was too excited to wait to post about the pie after trying, so hence it's still cooling in my kitchen. Hopefully the next post I make will be about how wonderful the pie turned out, not how horribly wrong my substitutions were and how you CAN go wrong adding blueberries.

Strawberry Lemonade Icebox Pie

Yesterday, I made this strawberry lemonade icebox pie. The recipe is by Martha Stewart and the recipe is found online here. I didn't realize the recipe takes all day - making, freezing, making, baking, cooling, refrigerating, making, broiling, eating - but I didn't have anything else to do on a boring Monday, so this pie stole my attention.

I never made meringue before and I was weary about making it because a. I have never made a meringue before or anything that must be whipped to an exact moment and b. I have never really like meringue. BUT! this recipe was easy to follow for making the merinuge, and it was actually really tasty!

The pie has been sitting in the fridge overnight, so it may be a little dry and the meringue may be tough, but that won't stop me from eating the rest!