Pie Cherries Everywhere!

A little Sunday morning cherry picking!

Have you ever grown fruit trees or even been around them? Until we bought our new home and moved last fall, I had done neither of these...unless you count picking mulberries at my grandma's house when I was a little (I mean little) kid.

Our new place came with a variety of trees, and we love it. We have pie cherries, apples (of some sort), regular mulberries, a white mulberry, peach trees, and a handful of mystery fruit trees... I'll keep you updated on those. We also have gooseberries, but I missed my window to try baking with those for this year!

I am amazed at how many cherries one tree can make. We have two or three cherry trees, but one of them is not like the rest. It's like a cherry making machine. We have picked them for family, and also picked some for this baking experiment.. but there are still so many of them!

Over the weekend, I was able to finally get to bake with part of the cherries, and it was delicious! The experimental dessert was a cherry cobbler recipe that I slightly altered. The two changes I made were using real vanilla extract instead of almond extract in the filling, and subbing butter for shortening in the biscuit topping. Nothing against almond or shortening, just didn't have them on a Sunday morning!

I'll admit, pitting these guys was an interesting experience, until my husband came along to show me the quicker way pit! Who knew you could just squish the pits right out?! I do now...

After adding all of the filling ingredients together (cherries, vanilla, sugar, and cornstarch), it got to mingle and come to a boil until it thickened. It smelled amazing!!

Then, once thick, it got poured into the sprayed baking dish, and into the oven at 400 degrees while I made the biscuit topping.

I forgot to get photographic evidence of the mixing of the dough, but it's a simple mix of baking powder, flour, sugar, cold butter, and cold milk. Then dropped it by the spoonful on top! It baked at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

The finished cobbler came out looking amazing. We then let it cool while we picked more cherries before church. It was taste tested (and approved) right before we headed to town.

We still have cherries galore.. so if you have any tried and true recipes that use tart pie cherries, feel free to share them!!!