Cherry season

I'm not much of a gardener but I love it when people want to give me their homegrown vegetables or fruit. 

Friends of ours recently texted me asking if I'd like a bag of cherries from their tree. "Yes please!".

First things first....what will I make?

Pie!

Turnovers; even better!

First to make the pie filling.

I washed and pitted the cherries. I got 6 cups so I quickly looked up a cherry pie filling recipe and got to work.

I 1&1/2 timed the recipe. I used half white half brown sugar and used vanilla instead of the almond extract it called for; other than that I followed the recipe.

Once the juices were released I stirred in the sugar cornstarch mixture.

This thickened up perfectly and it tasted just like E.D.  Smith pie filling. 

Using my premade  thawed pie dough and my never been used before pie press I asked Jeff to give me a hand to make the turnovers.

We mixed one egg yolk with a touch of water to make the egg wash.

Um; which one do you think I made? Ya the top one; uniformity isn't really my forte Id say rustic is more up my baking alley! So I turned it over to Jeff at this point of the process. 

Jeff brushed them with the egg wags and sprinkled them with course sugar.

I did make Aubrey a braided crust with the remaining dough. It is her favourite part of the pie so I thought rather than her wasting a turnover on her Id give her what she wants!

While the turnovers were baking I canned the remaining filling; I got 3-500ml jars. This will be perfect for pie or even a no bake cheesecake topping.

The turnovers took 18 minutes at 350F convection.

Seeing as we made four; we called my inlaws over for dessert. "Sharing is  fun" as we say in our house!

She was a fan of her "braid"; I don't think a crumb remained!

We served them warm with a scoop of icecream.

Now I wasn't sure if they were worth the work...until I tasted them. Oh my word! They were flaky; the filling was perfectly tart and sweet. I WILL be making these again; I mean I will definitly get Jeff to make these again....they were totally worth it!