Seasonal Ingredient Recipes: Cherries
Many British soft fruits are in season unusually early this year and, much to my delight, cherries are now available. Spanish cherries have been around for a few weeks and their arrival is something that I always look forward to.
This year the excitement has stepped up a gear as our new home has a well established cherry tree at the bottom of our garden which is laden with cherries that are almost ripe. Each day they blush a little bit more and I’m in serious planning mode for when those juicy red gifts from nature are ripe enough to eat.
Although there are hundreds of kinds of cherries, there are two main types – the sweet ones that can be eaten raw or cooked with and the more acidic, or sour, varieties that are best for cooking.
When the first sweet cherries arrive on the market it has become a bit of tradition in our home that we make cherry clafouti. Clafouti is a french baked dessert with fruit in a flan-like batter, dusted with icing sugar. It is a Summery treat to behold.
Traditionally it is made with the stones still inside the cherries to add more flavour. I prefer to remove mine and find that, although perhaps not as sophisticated as clafouti was originally intended, it tastes fantastic anyway (and we don’t knock any of our teeth out by accidentally biting on stones!).
I use this Cherry Clafouti recipe from Martha Stewart which is very easy to make. Martha suggests that clafouti is best eaten hot but we have found that leaving it to go cold means it can be served in neat slices and makes it more like a firm custard. Whichever way you choose to eat it you will not be disappointed.
Cherry pie is a classic choice for Summer. I prefer to use the sour cherries, which are offset by sweetened pastry.
Last year I used this recipe from the Channel 4 Food site which was very impressive. They don’t specify sour cherries but if you can get hold of them then it is worth the extra effort.
Just for fun I added extra detail by learning to make a lattice crust on the top. I found this video tutorial which has very simple instructions.
As I am expecting a bumper crop of cherries I’ve been searching the web, bookmarking ideas for what to do with them all. Here are some of the things that are on my list:
Morning Cherry Muffins from This Little Kitchen look super easy to make. I’m always looking for new ideas to break the monotony that can easily occur at the breakfast table and you can’t really go wrong with baked breakfasts and Summer fruits.
Cherry Jam is hot on my list. The very first jam I ever made was with cherries and ginger and it was a winning combination to accompany porridge on Winter mornings – very warming! Unfortunately I made that one up as I went along so there is no recipe to share.
There is a nice simple Cherry Jam recipe on the Allotment Growing Recipes blog. I have my eye on this Sour Cherry Jam recipe from Country Girl in Brooklyn but I’ll admit that a large part of my motivation is so that I can make these Turkish Visneli Browni.
Cherry and Almond Strudel (from All Recipes) made with filo pastry and served with greek yoghurt sounds like my idea of Summer pudding heaven!
And because my list is a little bit on the sickly sweet side – Magrets de Canard aux Cerises or Duck Breast with Cherries has been included, too.
Do you have a favourite cherry recipe?
Photography: masck, Madichan and Shermanoz.
Thanks for including me in your post. I agree with you can’t go wrong with muffins in the morning to change it up. This post is great I’m always looking for ideas to use my frozen cherries from summer.
Cherry Muffins look lovely! I am a big fan of Cherry Clafouti and although it is associated with summer puddings,I prefer them on colder evenings.