cherries Archives - The Midnight Baker

Cherry Berry Pandowdy

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 23:00:55 +0000

If pies aren’t your forte, this cherry berry pandowdy might be the perfect “pie” for you.

Pie Is My Downfall

If anything isn’t going to come out right for me, it’s going to be pie. More specifically, the crust.

OK, I’ve used the frozen and refrigerated varieties of crusts and that always works. However, it makes me feel really lame and it just doesn’t taste as good as I remember my mother’s crust being.

For that reason, I rarely am adventurous to make a pie from scratch. But one thing I know I can do is roll out a crust and throw pieces on top of a filling. That’s why I fell in love with this recipe.

Use Cherries Alone Or Mix

You can use cherries alone in this pan dowdy. That’s what the original recipe used–a mix of tart and sweet. And since the called-for ingredient is the frozen variety, you don’t have to make this only when fresh is on sale or in season. Just an aside but I found a major brand in my supermarket’s freezer case that was a mix of 50 percent sweet and 50 percent sour cherries. In addition, it was the exact amount I needed so no waste.

Since blackberries were on sale at buy one get two free, I had a leftover carton of them so I tossed those in. It made for a very interesting flavor, however as I mentioned before, the additional berries are not necessary.

Crust Like A Cookie

This crust tastes just like a shortbread cookie because it’s made with 100 percent butter.

It’s pretty easy to roll. My pie crust failings don’t come from rolling, but keeping it together getting it in the pan. However that doesn’t happen here.

The crust is rolled pretty thick–maybe just under 1/4-inch–so no danger of cracks or holes. Then all you do is cut squares or rectangles and place them on top of the berries.

Regular sugar may be used in place of sanding (coarse) sugar, but I encourage you to pick up some. I found a small bottle in Walmart in the baking supply aisle. It was will the decors, sprinkles and Cake Mate.

The Recipe

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Cherry Berry Pandowdy

If pies aren’t your forte, this cherry berry pandowdy might be the perfect “pie” for you.

Prep Time30

Cook Time1

Total Time1 30

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cherry dessert, pandowdy

Servings: 8

Calories: 377kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

Crust:

1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbs cold unsalted butter cubed
3-5 tbs ice water

Filling:

1 lb frozen sweet cherries thawed with juice
1 lb frozen tart cherries thawed with juice
2 tbs cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 lemon zested
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp almond extract
2 tbs unsalted butter

Crust Decoration:

1 egg beaten
sanding sugar

Instructions

Crust: pulse the almonds and 1/4 cups sugar in a food processor until fine. Add the flour and 1/4 tsp salt and pulse to combine. Scatter the cubed butter over the flour mixture and pulse until pea sized. Add the water, 1 tbs at a time pulsing after each addition, until dough comes together. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead a few times, then shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and place the rack in the middle of the oven.
Filling: mix the cornstarch with the 1/2 cup sugar to combine. In a large bowl, combine the cherries and their juice, the cornstarch mixture, zest, lemon juice, almond extract and the 1/4 tsp salt. Stir well and place in a 9-inch deep dish pie pan set on a baking sheet. Dot the filling with the 2 tbs butter.
Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4-inch or less. Cut into 2-3-inch squares. Arrange on the top of the filling in a patchwork pattern pressing pieces around the edge into the pie pan. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sanding sugar
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the top just begins to brown. Reduce temperature to 375 degrees F for about 35 minutes or until filling is bubbly and the top is golden brown. If it looks like it’s browning too much, lay a piece of foil on top of the pie plate.

Nutrition

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Cherry Bars

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 00:00:14 +0000

Yummy cherry-topped buttery bars are the perfect dessert and are easy to make too!

Need A Quick Dessert?

If you need a dessert on the double-up, these cherry bars may just be your answer. The bars taste great. The crust is rich and buttery and the tartness of the cherries complement and offset the richness.

You probably have everything you need to make this right on your shelf and refrigerator! But if you don’t have cherry pie filling, then any other fruit flavor will do!

There’s also no complicated shaping or decorating. All you do is pat the dough in the pan, bake it a bit, then spread the pie filling on top and drop mounds of the reserved dough on top. The nuts are optional and so is the icing if push came to shove, but the icing does make it taste great if you flavor it with almond!

Full Of Color

These bars look great if made with cherries. The red against the white gives a striking pop of color. Plus cherry pie filling is a bit more tart than other flavors, so it offsets the sweetness somewhat.

This would also be fantastic with strawberry pie filling–or even rhubarb! There are so many possibilities with this dessert. All you have to do is alter the pie filling flavor.

Adding some streusel crumbs would add another dimension to these cherry bars as well. Let your imagination run wild!

The Recipe

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Cherry Bars

Yummy cherry-topped buttery bars are the perfect dessert and are easy to make too!

Prep Time15

Cook Time42

Total Time57

Course: cakes, cookies, desserts

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bar cookies, cakes, cherry dessert

Servings: 12 -18

Calories: 536kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 21 ounce cans cherry pie filling see NOTES
1/2 cup sliced almonds optional

ICING

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
3 - 4 teaspoons milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds.
Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, and vanilla until combined.
Mix in the flour.
Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the dough.
Spread remaining dough in the bottom of an ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pan.
Bake for 12 minutes.
Spread pie filling over crust in pan. Spoon reserved dough into small mounds on top of pie filling. Sprinkle with nuts, if using.
Bake about 30 minutes more or until top is light brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
Drizzle top with icing. Cool completely.
To make icing, mix the confectioner's sugar and extract in a small bowl. Add just enough of the milk to make a smooth icing that will drizzle.

Notes

Any fruit flavored pie filling can be substituted

Nutrition

*Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

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Slow Cooker 3-Ingredient Cherry Crisp

Judith Hannemann — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 23:00:30 +0000

A slow cooker cherry crisp that requires only 3 ingredients and 3 hours to cook.

Great Taste Few Ingredients

All this cherry crisp requires is three main ingredients, and I bet you have all of them on hand especially if you have a well-stocked pantry.

There’s quite a number of items I insist on having on hand at all times. Two of them are yellow cake mix and a can of cherry pie filling. Butter is the third ingredient. I always tell people to never substitute margarine for butter. Margarine simply doesn’t have great taste and I find it overly oily when it’s in something. And when it heats, it has a really nasty odor. For years I called it “axle grease,” but even axle grease smells better.

Not to get bogged down in health issues, because that’s not this blogs’ focus, but I’ve read that with recent research, butter is actually healthier than the imitation stuff. But whatever the reason, it merely tastes better and that’s reason enough.

Nice Additions But Not Necessary

I personally love the flavor of almonds with cherries so I used some toasted sliced almonds to top off this cherry crisp. I also added 2 teaspoons of almond extract to the melted butter. That gave the “cake” part a little more almond flavor.

You don’t have to use the extract because the cake tastes fine without that addition. You could also use any other nuts in place of the almonds. Walnuts would be lovely here.

Substitute chocolate fudge or devil’s food cake mix instead of yellow cake mix for a Black Forest like version.

The Recipe

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Slow Cooker 3-Ingredient Cherry Crisp

A slow cooker cherry crisp that requires only 3 ingredients and 3 hours to cook.

Prep Time5

Cook Time3

Total Time3 5

Course: desserts, Slow Cooker

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cherry crisp, slow cooker desserts

Servings: 8

Calories: 448kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 box 2-layer size yellow cake mix
1/2 cup 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp almond extract optional
21 oz can cherry pie filling
1/4 cup sliced almonds or any kind of chopped nuts

Instructions

Melt butter over low heat in a small saucepan.
Add the extract if using
Place cake mix in a large bowl. Add the butter mixture and stir until all the butter is absorbed--the mixture will be crumbly.
Spread the can of cherry pie filling in the bottom of a 5-7 quart slow cooker (I used a 7-quart oval).
Distribute the cake mix "crumbs" across the entire top surface. Top with nuts.
Cover and cook on LOW for 2-3 hours.

Nutrition

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Black Forest Mousse

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:00:00 +0000

Black Forest Mousse

An excellent and easy dessert. With just two main ingredients, you can’t get much simpler than this and it’s low calorie too.

First I started with a dark chocolate ready-to-eat pudding I got for free on a store promotion–the shelf-stable ones that come in the little tubs. I folded that into some extra-creamy whipped topping then added some chopped dried cherries and mini chocolate chips.

So easy!

The result was a delicious and quick dessert that company thinks you fussed over.

You can substitute lower-fat versions of all things used and by the same token, it can be made even richer by folding in real whipped heavy cream.

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Black Forest Mousse

An excellent and easy dessert. With just two main ingredients, you can’t get much simpler than this and it’s low calorie too.

Prep Time5

Total Time5

Course: desserts

Cuisine: American

Keyword: black forest mousse, chocolate mousse

Servings: 3

Calories: 204kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

2 cups individual cups shelf-stable dark chocolate pudding
1 1/2 cups whipped topping or real whipped cream
2 tbsp chopped dried cherries
1 tbsp mini chocolate chips
additional mini chips and topping for garnish

Instructions

Empty the pudding tubs into a medium bowl. Add whipped topping or whipped cream and fold pudding into the topping.
Fold in the mini chocolate chips and dried cherries.
Spoon into 3 dessert cups (such as mini trifle bowls). Add a dollop of whipped topping and a few mini chocolate chips to garnish.

Nutrition

Black Forest Mousse

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