Showing posts with label cherries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cherries. Show all posts

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Sweet Cherry Pound Cake


I've been coveting a cherry pitter. That's right a cherry pitter. I'd pass it in the gadget aisle at Target and always decided not to put it in the cart, whether because it was just not cherry season or because I didn't want to add to the collection of "must haves" already in the pile (can anyone get out of Target for less than $50?--seriously, you need everything there). Well, I up and done it. I bought myself said cherry pitter. A gadget for no other purpose than to pit cherries.


By golly...I love my cherry pitter.

Of course, I had to put that pitter to good use immediately and let me tell you--it is slick! I shucked the pits out of a whole bag of cherries in a matter of minutes. As a bonus, the kitchen didn't look as if I had just slaughtered a pig! Do you see the little shatter shield on this thing? It works! :)

After Pete and I ate our fill of fresh cherries, I still had quite a huge bowl full. They begged to be made into something (tell me I'm not the only one who hears food chanting to them). I swear I heard them whisper "pound cake". Who am I to refuse such a request?

Sweet Cherry Pound Cake

Cake:
3 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
½ cup plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
2 cups chopped, fresh cherries

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1-2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.; grease and flour a 10” Bundt or tube pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.

Beginning with the flour mixture, add alternately with the yogurt to the egg mixture. Gently fold in the cherries.

.
In actuality, I had neither plain nor vanilla Greek yogurt in the house. I threw in a 6 oz container of pineapple yogurt and called it a day. No one was the wiser.

Pour batter into tube pan and distribute evenly. Bake about 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack for 20 minutes. Invert onto a cake dish and let cool another 30 minutes before glazing.


Please remember to grease and flour your pan...even if it is non-stick. Don't ask me how I know that this is so important....

For the glaze, beat confectioners' sugar, cream cheese, and a tablespoon of milk; add additional milk as necessary. Drizzle over the top of the pound cake.






Woohoo! Sweet Cherry Pound Cake success!


My husband beat me to the next gadget on my list...he had all of the strawberries hulled before I got to them. Wait--what's that I hear? Muffins?

What are your favorite kitchen gadgets?

Monday, December 3, 2012

Cherry-White Chocolate Chunk Cookies


Welcome to Christmas Week, a multi-blogger event co-hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Jen of Juanita’s Cocina. Each day we will be celebrating a new holiday baking theme where each blogger makes a dish they love. We hope you enjoy this fabulous event. Tune in each day starting Monday December 3nd and ending Friday December 7th.

Wow--this is the very first time I have committed to writing five (count 'em--five!) blog posts on consecutive days, but isn't holiday food worth it? Not only will you see five days worth of Christmas goodies coming from me, but the sweets will be flowing from eleven other bloggers. Isn't this fun? Now, let's talk about the cookies.....

A few years ago, my friend DeeDee posted one of the prettiest cookies I had ever seen. Full of maraschino cherries, white chocolate, and macadamia nuts, it really stood out as a stellar Christmas cookie. As luck would have it, DeeDee has allowed me to post her recipe to kick off Christmas Week. So, without further ado, let me share with you this spectacular cookie....

Cherry-White Chocolate Chunk Cookies (adapted from DeeDee Pierce)

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
½ cup chopped macadamia nuts
6 oz good quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 (10 oz) jar maraschino cherries, well drained and chopped


I found a package of macadamia nuts all nicely chopped up for me. If you prefer larger pieces, feel free to chop your own.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F; line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment*, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla and the almond extracts.

Add the flour, half at a time, to the creamed mixture, stirring just until well-incorporated. The dough will be stiff. Stir in the nuts and the white chocolate, then gently stir in the cherries. 


Since my jar of cherries was larger than I needed, I measured out one cup.

Drop the cookie dough by rounded tablespoons on to the lined cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until they are firmly set, but not browned. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool completely, before removing from the sheets (if you need to reuse the pan, simply slide off the parchment paper with the cookies, and reline).

*Using a stand mixer is recommended, as the cookie dough is rather stiff.





It's important to cool the cookies on the parchment paper...if you try removing them while they are still warm, they may fall apart. Trust me on this....


There you have it---beautiful cherry cookies! While you can certainly make these year-round (wouldn't that cherry-red color be great for Valentine's day?), I hear that this particular recipe is Santa's favorite. Please leave a few out for the jolly old guy.


Today’s theme for Christmas Week is “Cookies and Bars”. Make sure you visit all the participating bloggers today to see what special dish they whipped up for you.




Thursday, June 21, 2012

Black Cherry and Dark Chocolate Chunk Muffins


It's time for the Monthly Improv hosted by Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker! This month our flavor combo is Cherry and Almond and since I'm a a muffin roll...well...I couldn't resist. Of course, I used Greek yogurt and buttermilk, and to make them really special, I threw in some dark chocolate. Who wouldn't like that?

Black Cherry and Dark Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Printable Recipe

2 cups flour
¾ cup granulated sugar, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen dark, sweet cherries, halved
1 (4 oz) bar good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 egg, slightly beaten
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 (6 oz) container Black Cherry Greek Yogurt (sub plain or vanilla Greek Yogurt, if desired)
½ cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.; line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Fold in the cherries and the chocolate; set aside.

In a medium bowl or measuring cup, combine the beaten egg, butter, yogurt, buttermilk and almond extract.  Fold into the flour mixture until just blended, being careful not to over mix.

Use a cookie scoop to divide the batter into the muffin cups. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the tops of the muffins. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched.



Using frozen cherries was easy. Leave them frozen...they will be easier to slice and will mix well with the batter.


Use a good quality chocolate bar...you won't regret it.


I'm loving my little micro-plane spice grater...it was perfect for grating some fresh nutmeg into the batter.


Put the cherries and the chocolate in with the flour mixture and you won't have to stir so much when you add the liquid.


The batter will be fairly thick. Please don't over mix or you'll have tough muffins!








Now, check out what everyone else is making with Cherries and Almonds!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Hot Fruit Compote



Wow...another Thanksgiving is over. Weren't we just sharing Minnesota State Fair pics? This year, I had to deal with two vegetarians, a mother-in-law who was looking forward to tradition, and an onion hater. Seriously, how can you do a proper meal with no onions? That was worse than dealing with no meat. I did manage to pull it off, however. A huge thanks to convenience foods is in order....and to Boston Market, for being open on Thanksgiving, so my MIL could have turkey. :)

While I am a day late with the Thanksgiving meal post, I would like to share a quick alternative to cranberries (in our case, it is in addition to cranberries). Every year, without fail, I make a hot fruit compote to go with the meal. Usually, there is so much food that I have most of it leftover. This is a good thing since hot fruit compote turns into delicious cold fruit compote. Or warmed up fruit compote. At any rate, you can put this easy recipe in your pocket for Christmas.

Hot Fruit Compote

  • 1 (8oz) package assorted dried fruit, cut up*
  • 1-1 1/2 cups white or zinfandel wine
  • 1 (20 oz) can chunk pineapple
  • 1 (20 oz) can cherry pie filling
 *I like to add 5 or 6 additional prunes since there never enough in the bag.

Place cut up dried fruit in a 2 QT casserole dish; pour enough wine over the fruit to just cover it. Refrigerate the fruit for several hours or overnight.


I leave mine in the fridge overnight. The fruit plumps up really nice from the wine. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.


I don't think there is any other time of year when I use canned products as much as on Thanksgiving. There is so much to do, the convenience is so welcome.

Pour the can of pineapple (with juice) over the fruit; spread the cherry pie filling over the pineapple. Cover and bake for 45-60 minutes.



Be careful! This is lava hot when it comes out of the oven. Just stir it up and let it sit for a few minutes before digging in.


My favorite is to have it with leftovers the next day.


It's especially good on Dutch Pancakes.

So, what other convenience foods helped me out on Thanksgiving?


Good old Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. Everyone loves these.

How about you? Was everything from scratch, or did you open a can and/or a tube?


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