A Beautiful Mosaic

Ever since I received my June issue of Bon Appétit over a month ago, I’ve been waiting impatiently for sour cherries to come in season.  Featured on the front cover, that Circean slice of lattice top sour cherry pie has been mocking me for weeks.  Normally ready for picking at the end of June in this area, montmorency sour cherries have become ripe earlier and earlier, (no) thanks to global warming trends.  Montmorency cherries are bright red, not to be confused with dark Morello sour cherries, which ripen later in the summer.

Montmorency sour cherries are ready to be picked.

I am extremely fortunate to have wonderful neighbors with not one but two sour cherry trees in their backyard and an open invitation to help myself to their veritable garden of eden along with enormous and prolific fig, blueberry, blackberry and quince bushes.  Thankfully, they’re always bemusedly tolerant when they discover my kids with cherry or blueberry stained shirts in their backyard.  Pies, jams and other baked goodies made with their fruit are always the perfect apology.

Picked with permission.

Sour cherries are perfect for baking since they retain their firmness better than sweet cherries and inherently have that needed tartness for successful pie filling.  Sadly, sour cherries are hard to come by in even farmer’s markets since these small soft cherries bruise easily and do not travel well. 

Pitting cherries can be, well, the pits.  Unfortunately, with cherries these small, you need to pit a subtantial number of cherries for any given recipe.  You do not need a fancy cherry pitter - these are really just too soft for it.  A small metal paper clip shaped into a “j” shape will do the trick.  Simply press the “j hook” into the top and scoop (or squeeze) out the pit.  Works like a charm.

This recipe has a perfectly flaky crust and just the right amount of sugar for these tart cherries.  It truly is a classic recipe, with only the most basic of ingredients.  I think you’ll like it.

Classic Lattice Top Sour Cherry Pie (from Bon Appétit)

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  milk

For 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. Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Let dough soften slightly before rolling out.

For filling:
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.

Pie crust/pizza dough lifter is a must-have for anyone who loves to bake pies.

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.

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 50 minutes to 1 hour longer. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or just by itself.

I took my camera along on our walk to school yesterday morning.  The weather could not have been more glorious this week - in the seventies and bright sunshine all day.  While most of these flowering trees and bushes will peak in the next week, I’m happy to have captured this brief moment in my and my neighbor’s gardens.

Our lilac bush is by our kitchen window and the heavenly scent drifts in on those warm spring days.

Is there anything prettier than flowering Kwanzan cherry trees in the spring?

Weigela “Midnight Wine” is simply stunning with its deep red leaves and delicate pinkish-white flowers.

Our neighbor’s Viburnum “Nannyberry” bush soaks up the sun.

Our mesclun mix is coming along well.  It’ll soon be time to thin these out, much to our guinea pigs’ delight. 

The oregano from our herb garden multiplies with very little encouragment.  You need to cut it back occassionally or it can take over your herb garden.

Here in Zone 6, one should plant one’s cool weather vegetables on or around St. Patricks Day. In the 7 years I’ve been gardening, I have only managed to plant on March 17th just once (the first year). It was always downright arctic at the time or there was some other event needing my attention. This year, I’m proud that we’ve managed to attend to our garden only a week after downing our annual corned beef and cabbage.

Vegetable gardening is a wonderful way to get your children involved in an activity that has a tangible and edible reward for their efforts.  I do recommend raised beds for gardening, but a small sunny patch on your property would certainly do the trick.  I do two plantings - one in early spring for cool weather vegetables like peas, broccoli, green beans, and lettuces, and one after the danger of frost (Mother’s Day around here) for warm weather vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and squash. 

Here’s our sad looking raised beds after a winter of being neglected.

You want to first clean up our garden and pick out old leaves and in our case, the pricker balls from a sweet gum tree.  Feed your garden with compost and a fertilizer (I use Garden-tone).  Work it into the soil (get those kids working!)

I don’t always plant the same things, but this year we planted peas (my kids’ absolute favorite), mesclun mix and broccoli.

Plant seeds according to directions on packet.  Peas are especially easy for little hands to plant since all they have to do is push those peas down about 2 inches.

Peas and beans do grow quite tall (remember Jack and the Beanstalk?), so you do need to supply a trellis or stakes to support the stalks.  I take the tallest stakes I can find at the gardening center and connect them with green wire every 5-6 inches or so. 

Lettuces and broccoli have very small seeds and need to be planted very shallowly.  This is probably best be done by an adult (otherwise, you will find lettuce growing in places you don’t want).

Water with a watering can (I find a hose is too strong for such  shallowly planted seeds) and watch your garden grow!  By early June, your children should be popping open those pea pods and gobbling up raw peas like they were candy!