Cherry Pie Filling

Guess what I found at the Grand Blanc farmers' market on Sunday?? Tart cherries!! Woohoo!! :) I washed and pitted them on Sunday night after Carson went to bed, then I made and canned a batch of cherry pie filling using a USDA recipe on Monday evening. I made a double batch of the recipe below and ended up with 6 pints and 1 half-pint of filling. I tasted it as I was filling the jars and the cherries were a little tart-tasting still, but I think they'll probably sweeten up a little as they sit in the sugar-gel and if not, I'll just add a little sugar when I break open a jar. Otherwise, they tasted great, though! I'm excited to have this in the pantry now - I'll have to make turnovers or something sometime soon... though I think I might pick up some more fresh tart cherries and try making a cherry pie with fresh cherries if I can find them still... we'll see what I find and how much time I have, though. I'll update with a picture later on after I upload it.

Cherry Pie Filling

For every 1-quart of canned filling, you will need:
3 1/3 cups fresh or thawed sour cherries (I used fresh)
1 cup Granulated sugar (I used free-trade, organic)
1/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon Clear Jel
1 1/3 cups cold water
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon bottled lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
6 drops red food coloring (optional)


Select fresh, very ripe, and firm cherries. Unsweetened frozen cherries may be used. If sugar has been added, rinse it off while the fruit is still frozen.

Rinse and pit fresh cherries, and hold in cold water. To prevent stem end browning, use ascorbic acid solution (I didn't do this, but probably should have).

For fresh fruit, place 6 cups at a time in 1 gallon boiling water. Boil each batch 1 minute after the water returns to a boil. Drain but keep heated fruit in a covered bowl or pot.

Combine sugar and Clear Jel in a large saucepan and add water. If desired, add cinnamon, almond extract, and food coloring (I added them all). Stir mixture and cook over medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Fold in drained cherries immediately and fill jars with mixture without delay, leaving 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes.

Cherry Mousse

I decided to make a cherry mousse recipe I found on RecipeZaar for dessert to go along with our cherry chicken lettuce wraps. This was super simple to make - and could be simplified even more if you use a tub of Cool Whip if you're not trying to stay away from HFCS, anyway. This didn't have a ton of flavor, but its a nice, light-tasting, refreshing summer dessert. Maybe up the sugar a bit to give it a little more sweetness, or add more cherries. It was still good, as is, though.

Cherry Mousse

1 lb fresh sweet cherries, rinsed
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
2 cups heavy cream, preferably not ultra pasteurized

Set aside 6 whole cherries, with stems if still attached. Pit the remaining cherries. Combine the pitted cherries and one tablespoon of the confectioner's sugar in a food processor. Puree until coarsely chopped.

Whip the cream with the remaining confectioner's sugar until medium peaks form. Fold in the cherry puree and distribute the mouse among champagne flutes or small parfait glasses. Top with reserved cherries and serve immediately. The longer the mousse sits the darker the color.

Cherry Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Being that we're in peak cherry season right now, I figured I'd better do a little cooking with them before their short season comes to an end. I found some more local sweet cherries grown about 12 miles up the road from me, actually. So I thought they'd be perfect to use in making cherry chicken lettuce wraps, which I found on AllRecipes. I've made lettuce wraps similar to those at PF Changs before and we've loved them, so I thought we'd probably love these, too. These were super easy to make and super tasty, too! My dad was over when we ate them and Carson, my dad, and I all loved them. Kevin would have loved them if he didn't have an allergic reaction to the cherries. :( Even though I sauteed my veggies in with the chicken and didn't leave them raw, he still had a reaction to them. Other than that, this is a great recipe to try!

Cherry Chicken Lettuce Wraps

2 tablespoons canola oil (I used sesame oil for more of an asian flavor)
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
1 1/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite size pieces
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce (I didn't have any, so just use 1 T soy sauce and 1 T worchestershire sauce)
1 tablespoon honey
1 pound dark sweet cherries, pitted and halved
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1/3 cup toasted and sliced almonds
12 leaves of lettuce

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add ginger and chicken and saute until cooked through, about 7 to 10 minutes. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 1 tablespoon oil, vinegar, teriyaki sauce and honey until mixed together. Add chicken mixture, cherries, carrot, green onion and almonds; toss together. (I sauteed all of mine together for a few minutes.)

To Serve: Spoon 1/12 of the chicken/cherry mixture onto the center of each lettuce leaf; roll up leaf around filling and serve.

Black Forest Jam

Well, guess what I found at the farmers market yesterday? Cherries!! And they're actually not Traverse City cherries - which I wouldn't consider local for me even though they're delicious - but they're from Romeo, which is about 50 miles away, so they're local! Yeah!! I bought 8 quarts and have made it through 6 of them already. 3 quarts were dehydrated, 2 quarts were used in making this jam, 1 quart has been frozen. I'll freeze another quart today and the last quart will be for fresh eating. I'd still like to make some cherry pie filling, but we'll have to see if I can find other local cherries this week at one of the other markets. I'd kind of like to dehydrate another few quarts, too. Since Carson eats raisins like they're going out of style right now, I'm hoping he likes dried cherries (he'll get to try them today). They're a great snack, but I'd also like to make sure I have some for baking this fall/winter, too.

Anyway, back to the jam. This recipe is from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. My friend from work is borrowing my book right now, so I had to look this one up on one of the canning groups I follow, so hopefully its still the correct recipe. Its the one I used, at least. And it is soooo good! I tasted it as I was filling the jars - YUM! I wanted to make this to use as a filling for a chocolate cake and it'd be a great ice cream or cheesecake topping, too! I made a double batch, as I'm thinking this might be a good holiday gift for our mailman, hair stylist, etc.

Black Forest Jam

6 1/2 c. granulated sugar (organic, free-trade certified)
1/3 c. sifted unsweetened cocoa powder (organic, free-trade certified)
3 c. firmly packed, coarsely chopped, pitted sweet black cherries (I used Bing cherries)
1/2 c. lemon juice
2 pouches (3 oz. each) liquid pectin
4 T. amaretto liqueur or 1/2 tsp almond extract (I used the extract)

Prepare canner, jars, and lids. In a small bowl, combine sugar and cocoa powder. Stir well and set aside.

In a large, deep, stainless steel saucepan, combine the cherries and lemon juice. Stir in reserved cocoa mixture. Over high heat, stirring constantly, bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Stir in pectin. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in amaretto liqueur. Remove from heat and skim off foam.

Ladle hot preserves into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot preserves. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove lid, wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool, and store.

Makes 7 half pints.

Dried Cherries

On Sunday, I went into Swartz Creek to the local farmer's market to pick up some cherries and blueberries. I decided to dry the cherries to have on hand in the fall and winter for pork dishes and maybe some baking. I only bought a quart of Michigan cherries, which only yields about a cup and a half (maybe 2 cups, I didn't measure, just eyeballed it) of dried cherries. So I'm hoping to make another trip next week to pick up another quart or two. Dried cherries, or fruit of any kind really, are such a tasty addition to pork roasts, pork chops, and pork loins. They're also very tasty to eat just by themselves, but I'm hoping to be able to save these for my intended purpose of cooking with them.

I don't have a food dehydrator yet - I've been looking for a good deal on one on CraigsList for awhile now and I think I may be getting one on Tuesday if it turns out to be as nice in person as it sounds. So for this batch of cherries, I used my normal oven. I have one of those Maytag Gemini ovens, its a free-standing range, but has two separate ovens. A small one on top (the size of the drawer on the bottom of a normal oven) and a regular sized oven on the bottom. I used the smaller top one as it takes less energy to maintain the temperature. I preheated the oven to 170, my lowest heat setting, but I've read that others have done this on 200, which was their lowest heat setting. I then pitted all of the cherries by running a paring knife around the cherry and peeling it apart. I put all of the pitted cherries onto a parchment lined baking sheet and put them in the oven basically all day and into the night. It took mine about 9.5 hours, but depending on your heat setting and your oven, I've read it can take as little as 5 hours and as many as 12 hours. I then just shut the oven off and left the baking sheet in the oven overnight to dry them up a little more. This morning, I put them into a plastic Ziploc storage bag for the time being until I can get a half-pint canning jar cleaned tonight. Then I'll transfer them to that and store them in the pantry.