Slab Cherry Pie

It’s no secret that we love cherries around here.  So, before summer ends, we whipped up a cherry pie! 

Rather than make it in a pie plate, I decided to make one as a “slab”, in a 9x13 baking dish. 

It worked out great and it was sure delicious. 

Slab Cherry Pie 

Crust Ingredients

• 3 C flour {we used Eagle Mills Flour with UltraGrain}
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 C butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 5 T cold water

Cherry Filling Ingredients

• 1 recipe cherry pie filling

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the 3 C flour, 1 tsp. salt {omit if using salted butter}, and 1 1/4 C butter.  Use a fork and mix until crumbly. 

In another bowl or measuring cup, lightly beat an egg and add the 1 tsp. vinegar. 

Add the egg mixture to the butter/flour and then add in the 5 T cold water.  At this point, the dough will begin to clump together.  Use your hands to form a dough.

Chill the crust for 15-30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, prepare the cherry pie filling according to directions.  Set aside to cool. 

When the pie crust is ready, divide the dough into two portions and roll each portion into a thin layer (roughly the size of a 9x13 rectangle) using a well-floured surface.

Place one pie crust into the 9x13 baking dish.  

If the dough does not come up the sides very high, you have two choices: take some pie crust dough from the other rectangle and piece it in along the sides, or just leave it as is (that’s what I did). 

Taking the other piece of crust dough, cut lattice strips, about 1/4-1/2 inch in width, from the full piece. 

Then, pour the cooled cherry pie filling into the crust. 

Arrange the lattice strips across the top as you please. 

If your crust comes up over the top of the filling, fold that edge over to create a lattice around the sides.  If it does not, you might consider creating a seal around the edges by pinching a lattice strip along each side.  That is what I ended up doing. 

Place the pie into the oven and bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes until the filling is bubbly and the crust is slightly browned. 

Cool completely before serving and then top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Frog Prince + Cherry Cake

Today is my dear Frog Prince’s birthday, and I couldn’t be more thankful for him.

This amazing man is such a gift to me – not to mention he does dishes and can cook! 

We’ve celebrated his last 8 birthday’s together, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it is this: Frog Prince loves cherries. 

In fact, for all but 2 birthdays, we’ve made cherry cake.  And, if you are curious, those two birthdays have consisted of a Copy-Cat Carvel Ice Cream Cake. 

We’ve made a simple Cherry Cake (which we made most often in the early years when I still used boxed cake mixes):

But, his favorite is this Cherry Coffee Cake.

On his birthday, I wanted to share his favorite cake with you, because I’m sure if you like cherries, you’ll enjoy this one too. 

Happy Birthday, Frog Prince!  You are the best. 

Ingredient Spotlight: Cherries & Pomegranates

Today’s Ingredient Spotlight focuses on cherries – sweet black and tart/sour or pie cherries.  We love them all.  We’re also featuring pomegranates, but I have no recipes here using these red beauties! 

Our love of cherries began when we lived in the mitten state and visited the National Cherry Festival (yes, there is such a thing).  Since then you can count on two things: (1) Every trip back to the mitten state means a cooler full of frozen tart cherries, and (2) Monthly deliveries from the Grand Traverse Fruit Co. of dried cherries. 

Here are some of our favorite recipes & tips for working with cherries:

Best Cherry Pitting Tip – We love cherries, but hate pitting them.  Here’s a easy and no-mess approach to pitting cherries.  Get directions here. 

Homemade Cherry Pie Filling – Delicious and free of food dyes.  Love this pie filling. Get the recipe here. 

Sweetheart Cake  - this cherry and chocolate cake would be perfect for your Valentine’s Day!  Get the recipe here. 

Cherry BBQ Sauce – Made with sweet or tart cherries, this BBQ sauce is excellent through and through.  Get the recipe here. 

Cherry Bars – These bars are delicious and while the original recipe racked up 240 calories and 9 grams of fat.  The better-for-you version uses white whole wheat flour and takes the calorie count down to 100 cals and 1 gram of fat.  Get the recipe here. 

Soft-Baked Oatmeal Cherry Cookies – Get the recipe here. 

Chocolate Cherry Bark – This stuff is good.  And addicting.  Get the recipe here.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars – Get the recipe here. 

Cherry Balsamic Skillet – Get the recipe here.

Cherry Coffee Cake – A family favorite.  Get the recipe here.

Do you like cherries?  Black & sweet or red & tart? 

If you want to link up a cherry recipe, stop by Eat at Home and link up!

Cherry Braid

For my Frog Prince, I made him a treat I knew he would love – a cherry danish braid.

We used our homemade pie filling along with a white whole wheat flour in the crust and it turned out fabulous!  If you need a dessert or special treat for a brunch, this is great and could easily be filled with any fruit filling of your choice. 

Cherry Braid – Adapted from The Sweets Life

Ingredients

• 1 7/8 C white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 oz. Neufchatel cream cheese
• 5 T butter, unsalted
• 1/2 C milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• heaping 1/2 C cherry pie filling

Directions

Begin by combining the 1 7/8 C white whole wheat flour with the 1 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt.  Mix with a whisk.  Then, cut in the 5 T butter (softened) and 3 oz. cream cheese (softened).  If you have a food processor, feel free to use it to make the dough – pulse 6 times. 

Add the 1/2 C milk and the 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract and stir until the dough comes together. 

Carefully roll the dough into a 12x8 inch rectangle that is about 1/2 inch thick. 

Use a knife to “draw” lines dividing the dough into thirds. 

Place the cherry pie filling down the center. 

Then, slice the two sides into 1-inch strips.  I cut mine on the diagonal. 

Fold the strips of dough over the cherries, alternating sides. 

Mine doesn’t look nearly as exciting as the original… but, it’s tasty!

Bake on a half-sheet pan or a large cookie sheet at 425 for 12-15 minutes.  Bake until the dough is cooked through and the top is lightly browned. 

Serve warm, great for breakfast or dessert!

Cherry Bars

After living in Michigan while I completed my graduate work, my love for cherries grew by leaps & bounds.  I have always been a fan of dark sweet cherries… but that love has met it’s match.

Tart cherries, or pie cherries, have won my heart.  Look for them at mid-summer hailing from Traverse City, Michigan, the cherry capitol of the world.  Then, make these bars.  

Of course we “healthified” the recipe – simple changes that really add up in terms of health, not taste!  Each bar (using homemade pie filling) has 100 calories and 2.4 grams of fat.  The original recipe had 240 cals bar and 9 grams of fat.  Now that’s more like it!

Cherry Bars – Adapted from Lick the Bowl Good

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C white whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 C butter, softened
• 1/4 C applesauce
• 1/2 C {heaping} sugar
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• Cherry Pie Filling (1 can, or make your own) 
• Powdered Sugar

Directions

Begin by creaming together 1/4 C butter, 1/4 C applesauce (fee free to use more applesauce if desired and adjust the butter accordingly), heaping 1/2 C sugar and 1/4 C brown sugar. 

Add in the eggs and vanilla and continue to beat until well blended.

In a small bowl, combine 1 1/2 C white whole wheat flour with 3/4 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt.  Sift to combine. 

Add the dry ingredients into the wet ones and mix until well blended. 

Reserve 3/4 C of batter.  Then, pour the remaining batter into a lightly greased 9x13 glass baking dish.  Spread with a lightly greased spatula until even. 

Grab your cherry pie filling.  If you are able, make your own.  All you need is tart cherries (frozen is fine), sugar, corn starch and water. 

Just make sure the pie filling is cooled before you proceed! 

Pour the pie filling over the crust layer.

Then, drop the remaining 3/4 C batter by the spoonful over the dough. 

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until the dough is slightly browned. 

Cool. 

Garnish with powdered sugar, if desired. 

Cut and serve!