Black Cherry Sour Cream Muffins

It's cherry season! And I got a bunch of cherries in my hand. Kids and me are cherry-addict so I always stocked them in my fridge. We like to eat them as it is or in baking goods.

Mindy post this recipe on her blog and I'd love to try. And this recipe turned out great. Love it! The texture of the muffin is so light and soft with a touch of sourness from the cherries.



Black Cherry Sour Cream Muffins
Source : Baking Bites via Mindy's Deli

Ingredients :
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sour cream (light or regular)
1/4 cup cherry juice (or milk, if juice is unavailable)
3/4 cup pitted black cherries (defrosted, if frozen), chopped
coarse sugar, for topping

Directions :
Preheat oven to 375F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar, egg and melted butter. Add in 1/2 of the flour and the sour cream and stir to combine. Stir in cherry juice (or milk) and remaining flour, just until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in cherries and divide into prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle each generously with sugar.
Bake for 16-19 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 1 dozen.

Classic Sour Cherry Pie with Lattice Crust

I love this recipe! No egg needed, so the texture will be more like puff pastry. Light and flaky crust with incredible sour cherry filling....YYUUUMMM!!!



Classic Sour Cherry Pie with Lattice Crust
adapted from : Bon Appétit Magazine June 2008

Ingredients :
CRUST

* 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
* 5 tablespoons (or more) ice water

FILLING

* 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
* 3 tablespoons cornstarch
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 5 cups whole pitted sour cherries or dark sweet cherries (about 2 pounds whole unpitted cherries)
* 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (if using sour cherries) or 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (if using dark sweet cherries)
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
* 1 tablespoon (about) milk
* Vanilla ice cream


(Tips : Since I don't have cherry pitter, I used a Chopstick to push the pit through the fruit)



Directions :
CRUST

Whisk flour, sugar, and salt in large bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until small pea-size clumps form. Add 5 tablespoons ice water; mix lightly with fork until dough holds together when small pieces are pressed between fingertips, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough together; divide into 2 pieces. Form each piece into ball, then flatten into disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Let dough soften slightly before rolling out.

FILLING :

1.Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 425°F. Whisk 1 cup sugar, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Stir in cherries, lemon juice, and vanilla; set aside.

2. Roll out 1 dough disk on floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch glass pie dish. Trim dough overhang to 1/2 inch. Roll out second dough disk on floured surface to 12-inch round. Using large knife or pastry wheel with fluted edge, cut ten 3/4-inch-wide strips from dough round. Transfer filling to dough-lined dish, mounding slightly in center. Dot with butter. Arrange dough strips atop filling, forming lattice; trim dough strip overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold bottom crust up over ends of strips and crimp edges to seal. Brush lattice crust (not edges) with milk. Sprinkle lattice with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.



3. Place pie on rimmed baking sheet and bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Bake pie until filling is bubbling and crust is golden brown, covering edges with foil collar if browning too quickly, about 1 hour longer. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely. Cut into wedges and serve with vanilla ice cream.



Another Pie recipes ;
1. Banofee Pies
2. Apple Tart

Cherry Cheesecake

Having a long vacation, from Istanbul and then Indonesia, made me baking blue. For almost 1,5 mos, I didn't touch my baking tools ;). Now, I'm kicking and alive...it's time for me to strike back in the kitchen :D. Please take a seat, have a cup of tea and enjoy my cheesecake.



Cherry Cheesecake (Philadelphia New York Cheesecake)
Prep : 15 min.plus refrigeration
Bake : 40 min.



Ingredients :
6 honey maid honey grahams, crushed (Dita - any biscuits will do, you can even use oreo)
1 cup plus 3 Tbsp. sugar, divided
3 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
5 pkg (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened (Dita - I used 300 gr cream cheese)
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp vanilla (Dita - Use only 1 Tsp. If you use 1 Tbsp, believe me it will turn out bitter)
1 cup sour cream (Dita - I used yoghurt)
4 eggs
1 can cherry pie filling

Directions :
1. Heat oven to 325˙F. Line 13x9 inch pan with foil. Mix crumbs, 3 Tbsp sugar and butter; press onto bottom of pan. Bake 10 min.
2. Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla until blended. Add sour cream; blend. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed until blended.
3. Bake 40 min or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours. Use foil to lift cheesecake from pan.
4. Top with pie filling and serve. Makes 16 servings

Copyright and Cherry Cobbler Recipe

Yesterday, due to a copyright issues, I was worry about copying recipe from someone's book and then publish it on my own blog. Some people said that people have been blogging from books and it wouldn't be any problem as long as we mention the source of the recipe. But still, I feel awkward doing this copy and paste thing from the book to my blog. On the other side, I got a brilliant insight from V, she gave me good examples, you can read here and here. *thanks V :)*

And then my dearest friend Sefa suggested me to ask David *thanks Fa, what a smart idea, why I didn't think about it before? (d'oohh) Why not e-mailing the author himself? * Well, it's fair enough. So, I decided to e-mail David Lebovitz himself to tell about my anxiety of using and copying the recipe from his book Ripe For Dessert and then ask him, what if I publish it on my blog.

And you know what?? He's such a very nice and generous man. He replied my e-mail so quickly, less than 2 hours I guess :). Here's his answer :

Thanks for your message. You're welcome to use a recipe, the general consensus is to use the words "adapted from Ripe For Dessert". So glad you like the book.... happy baking!

David

Now, nothing to worried about. I supposed he doesn't mind at all. I think this is the fairest way to me, asking for permission to the author.

Here's the recipe, adapted from the book "Ripe For Dessert" by David Lebovitz :



Nectarine and Blueberry Cobbler with Big Fluffy Biscuits
6 servings

The Fruit Filling :
7 medium or 9 small nectarines
6 tbsp sugar
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
One 6 ounces basket of blubberies
(dita-I used cherries instead of nectarines and bluberries)

The Biscuits :
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar plus more for sprinkling
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, frozen
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp milk

Methods :
1. Position the oven rack in the center of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 375˙.
2. To make the fruit filling : Cut the nectarines in half, remove the pits (dita-I did the same for the cherries) and cut the fruit into 1/2 inch slices. In a large, deep mixing bowl, toss the nectarines together with the sugar, lemon juice, flour, vanilla and blueberries.
3. Transfer the fruit mixture to a 2-quart baking dish and bake in the oven for 40 minutes (dita-30 min), stirring once during baking. (David recommended putting a layer of aluminium foil on the rack under the baking dish to catch any juices that may bubble over). Remove the baking dish from the oven.
4. To make biscuits : Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 2 tsp sugar. Using the largest holes on a box grater, grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture. Stir in the buttermilk until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Spoon the biscuit batter over the nectarines in 6 roughly equal mounds.
5. Mix the egg yolk with the milk and dab the top of each mound liberally with the egg wash. Sprinkle with a nice dusting of sugar and pop the cobbler back into the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the biscuits are browned.

Serving : Serve the cobbler warm with vanilla ice cream or a pitcher of very cold heavy cream.



Related Link :
1. Cherry Cobbler with Big Fluffly Biscuits
2. Cherry Clafoutis

Cherry Cobbler with Big Fluffy Biscuits

I've been dreaming of this book since couple of months ago. It's David Lebovitz's, Room For Dessert. But, I didn't expect too much, what a pity that I can not find the real bookshop (I mean not just a stationery store) with good quality collections of books, here in Kuwait.



One day, my lil' family and I went to Al Manara Bookshop as our Saturday Bookshop Day ritual. Just looking around and checking some new mags.

As usual, I was occupied with cooking books *baca doang gak beli*. Actually I was thinking over to take Donna Hay's Modern Classic (Book 1).



When I was searching through the rack, books by books, suddenly my eyes were catching at a book. To my surprise it was clearly written David Lebovitz Ripe For Dessert. I was so thrilled. But.....wait wait! That wasn't Room For Dessert but Ripe For Dessert? I didn't care anyway :D, anything will do as long as it's David Lebovitz's :P. Besides, it was the only one from Mr. Lebovitz in that bookshop, so I had more reason to grab the book ;).



Lebovitz say that this dessert is very low in the f-word (fat, that is), since the use of buttermilk and only modest amount of butter in the biscuits.



So you don't have to feel guilty to enjoy this with a rewarding scoop of your favorite ice cream ;).



Due to the copyright issue, I am not really sure to post the recipe here eventhough I will mention the source of the recipe (I don't know....you tell me, I have no idea whether it's ok to share the recipe here? If it's possible, I will post it later). Usually I copied and pasted recipes from someone else's blog and always mention the source :), but now since I have the book, I don't know what to do. *hehehe....biasanya asik-asik copy paste aja, begitu punya sendiri bukunya, jadi kelimpungan....norak!*

Egg Yolks Recipe # 1 : Clafoutis

I made french macarons 10 times and I hate the waste of egg yolks. I got confused what should I do with this! I didn't prepare myself to make some cake which needs a lot of egg yolks such as Indonesian Lapis Surabaya Cake or Lapis Legit (somekind of layer cake). Who would eat that? My kids don't really like that kind of cake.

After googling around I found some ideas to use the leftover egg yolks. The first recipe I've tried was Clafoutis. And it's cherry season here (oohhh how I love this kind of fruit), I decided to make cherry clafoutis.



Clafoutis or clafouti (pronounced kla-foo-TEE) is a French country dessert from the Limousin region that has become very popular in North America. Traditionally it was made with the first sweet cherries of the season and the cherries were left unpitted so the kernels could release their delicate almond flavor as they baked (more about Clafoutis, here).

Actually that was not the first time for me making clafoutis. I did before with another flavor. Lemon and almond clafoutis. Yes! Not the real clafoutis I guess, because I didn't use cherry. But be creative, you can use another kind of fruits such as berries, rhubarbs, plums or peaches.


My first attempt on Clafoutis

I used the recipe from Joy of Baking.



Cherry and Almond Clafoutis

Clafoutis Batter:
1/2 cup (70 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs (I used 3 eggyolks)
2 tablespoons (30 grams) granulated white sugar
3/4 cup (180 ml) milk (I used evaporated milk)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
(dita) silvered almonds

Plus:
1 pound (454 grams) fresh sweet cherries, pitted
1 tablespoon (13 grams) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons (30 grams) granulated white sugar

Directions :
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Wash the cherries, remove the stems and pits.

For the Clafoutis Batter: In your food processor or blender place all the batter ingredients. Process for about 45 - 60 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Once the batter is completely smooth, let it rest while you prepare the fruit.

In a large 9- or 10- inch (23 or 25 cm) heavy nonstick ovenproof skillet melt the butter over medium heat making sure the melted butter coats the bottom and sides of the pan. When the butter is bubbling, add the pitted cherries, and cook until the cherries have softened a bit and are coated with butter (2 - 3 minutes). Then sprinkle the cherries with the sugar and cook until the sugar has dissolved and turns into a syrup (1 - 2 minutes). Pour the batter over the cherries (dita-sprinkle with silvered almonds) and bake for about 20 minutes or until the clafoutis is puffed, set, and golden brown around the edges. Do not open the oven door until the end of the baking time or it may collapse. Serve immediately with a dusting of confectioners sugar and yogurt, creme fraiche or softly whipped cream.

Serves 2 - 3.