Itsy Bitsy Foodies

I was excited to find out that the cherries falling over our fence from the neighbor’s tree are sour cherries.  Sour cherries {otherwise known as pie cherries and tart cherries} are hard to come by.  They are more fragile than Bing, Rainer and other sweeter varieties of cherries and therefore they don’t have a long shelf-life.  You won’t likely find them in super markets but if you’re lucky, you know someone with a pie cherry tree or you can find them at a farmer’s market.  The majority of sour cherries are dried or canned for pie filling.  As the name implies, these cherries are sour and not great for eating as you would other cherries but they are wonderful for baking.  If you can’t find sour cherries you can use a sweeter cherry and reduce the amount of sugar in the filling.

Hand pies {also known as pocket pies} are individual servings of pie that transport well for picnics and lunchboxes.  They were the perfect choice for me because I only had one cup of sour cherries to work with.  I used half of the dough to make four 5-inch pies and two 4-inch pies and I’m saving the rest of the dough for later.  This time I made them in the traditional hand pie shape but you can cut them into fun shapes like I did last summer with my Apricot Pocket Pies.   I continue to use the pastry dough recipe from Williams-Sonoma Kitchen that is a basic pate brisee because it’s easy to work with and has a buttery flavor and flaky texture.  I paired my cherry hand pies with almond whipped cream.       

{The pastry dough recipe comes from Williams-Sonoma.}