Author: Claire

Little Sweet Cherry Pies

/ Claire / Leave a comment

These little beauties are made with sweet and buttery pastry and filled with juicy and sweet fresh cherries.

cherries3

When cherries are in season, they are so good eaten fresh, but if you are looking to make the perfect summer dessert, then cherry pie is fantastic.

This particular recipe is for individual sized pies, but you could easily make mini pies or a large one to cut into slices.

uncooked pie

This recipe makes 6 individual pies or one large one

For the crust:
500 grams plain/all purpose flour
100g icing sugar, sifted
250g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 large eggs, preferably refrigerated
½ tsp salt
Pinch of cinnamon
1 egg yolk and a little milk to make an egg wash

Filling:
800grams pitted sweet cherries
Juice and zest of half a lemon
100g soft brown sugar – you may need less if your cherries are super sweet
2 tbs water
1 tbs cornflour
Pinch of cinnamon

cherry pie2

Put the flour, butter, salt and cinnamon into the food processor fitted with the steel blade.  Pulse the ingredients until crumbly, add the eggs and pulse a few more times until a ball of dough starts to come together.

Turn the dough out, pat into a circle, wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes, whilhile you prepare the cherry filling.

In a small bowl mix cornflour with 1 tbs of flour together.

In a pan, heat the cherries, water, juice, zest, cinnamon and sugar together and cook on a gentle heat for up to 20 minutes until softened but not until the fruit is falling apart.  Add the cornflour mixture and heat until the cherry filling is thickened.  Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF

Cut the chilled pastry into two halves and re-wrap one half and put back in the refrigerator.

Roll out the pasty and line the bases of your tart tins, fill with the cooled cherry filling.

For the lattice tops take out the other half of the pastry and roll it out.  Taking a pizza cutter, or a sharp knife and a ruler, cut equal narrow strips of pastry and layer onto each pie to form a lattice, pressing off excess pastry with your fingers.

It’s best to chill the pies again at this stage for 20 minutes

Egg wash the tops of the pies and bake for around 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and cooked through.

pie closeup

Chilli and Cucumber Salad

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This is based on a salad I had at the School of Artisan Food in Welbeck, Nottingham. It was a summer side dish that I thought was so fresh and refreshing and made from the simplest of ingredients. I knew I had to make it at home.

Chilli cucumber salad

I couldn’t get the taste quite the same, so the next time I went I asked what was in the dressing. They didn’t give me the exact recipe, but they did tell me it contained white balsamic vinegar, something I hadn’t tried before. I went home and tried various dressings until I came up with the one below.

I’ve used fresh and zingy mint and coriander here, but it works just as well with dill.

For extra crisp cucumbers, I have tried salting and using ice water but I normally just make this and eat straightaway.

I have all the ingredients chilled ready in the fridge as it tastes best eaten cold on a hot day.

Ingredients:
1 large cucumber
1-2 red chillies – depending on heat
10 mint leaves, rolled and very finely shredded, plus a little extra for the top
Small bunch of coriander/cilantro, leaving some aside

Dressing:
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Chilli cucumber salad1

Method:
Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl.

Slice the cucumber lengthways and using a spoon, remove the seeds slice into semicircles.

Slice the chillies lengthways and carefully remove the seeds and white membrane and very finely chop.

Toss everything in a bowl and add enough dressing to moisten. Place in your serving bowl or platter and scatter over additional herbs.

This is a lovely salad to serve with grilled fish, chicken tikka or lamb kebabs and flatbreads.

Cucumber salad close up 2

Goats Cheese, Spinach and Bacon Stuffed Mini Sweet Peppers

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I saw these mini peppers at the market and thought they are just asking to be stuffed with something delicious!

I love goats cheese and knew I had some spinach in the freezer, so decided to make a creamy goats cheese and spinach filling and add in some smoked bacon too. The end result was super delicious and just the thing to eat with drinks as it was SO hot over the weekend.

Stuffed peppers

Ingredients:
1 punnet (around 300g) of mini mixed peppers
1 100g pack of French Chevre, or any other goats cheese
100g of full fat cream cheese
100g of frozen spinach, thawed and all the water squeezed out
200g of smoked streaky bacon
Freshly ground black pepper

Method:
Pre heat the oven to 200°C/400°F

Place the bacon on a foil lined backing tray and cook in the oven until cooked through and crisp, leave to cool before snipping into small pieces.

While the bacon is cooking, slice the peppers lengthways, remove any seeds and membranes and place in a oven proof dish.

Mix together the cheeses and spinach with a few grinds of black pepper. Stir in the bacon. I don’t add any extra salt as the cheese and bacon both contain salt.

Using a spoon, fill the pepper halves with the cheese mixture and bake for around 20 minutes until the tops are just staring to catch.

These are delicious served at room temperature with drinks on a hot day, but equally as enjoyable, served warm with red wine on a cold day.

Pepper closeup