Cherryland's Best - Cherries 2.5 ways

Near the end of July I went camping with my family and, at the last minute, came across an opportunity to buy fresh Door County Cherries from CherryLand’s Best delivered from Door County that morning! I couldn't pass up the opportunity! I picked up a huge pail and wasn't sure right away what to do with them all - since they would only stay fresh for a few days. I ended up finding three ways to use them, If you don't count dehydrating.

Cherry Pie
Filling adapted from a recipe on allrecipes.com
Crust from "The Recipe Encyclopedia"

Crust

1 1/4 cups bread flour (x2)
1/3 cup butter (x2)
1 tablespoons sugar (x2)
4 tablespoons cold water (x2)

• Mix ingredients in a bowl. 
• Knead by hand on counter top for 2mins (use flour to prevent sticking).
• Place dough in bowl.
• Cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 30min.
• Repeat all of the steps above to make the pie top.
• Roll the both crusts 1/8in thin.
• Place only the bottom crust in pie pan and bake for 15min (or until golden brown).

Filling and assembly
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup white sugar
4 cups pitted cherries
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons butter

• Preheat oven to 400.
• In a large mixing bowl combine salt, sugar, cherries, and extract.
• Let stand 15 minutes.
• Put filling over crust.
• Cover with top crust, flute edges, and cut vents in top. - We did the basket weave
• Place pie on a foil lined cookie sheet - in case of drips
• Bake for 50 minutes, until golden brown. 

Tips

• Pie Crusts are like a buttery cookie dough that doesn't rise. It is buttery enough by its self so you don't need to butter the pie pan.
• To help the bottom crust from having air pockets that rise while cooking the crust, you can add a layer of parchment paper (not wax paper) on top of the crust and weight it down evenly with loose beans or rice.
• While the pie filling is cooking, the crust might brown to quickly. If the crust starts to brown too much, cover the pie with aluminum foil.
• Make your own whipped cream (using real cream!)

Cherry Clafouti 
From Alton Brown

12oz fresh or frozen cherries - I used fresh of course!
2 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Butter, for the Dutch oven

• Prepare charcoal for cooking outdoors by heating coals in a chimney starter until hot and ashy.
• Butter the bottom and sides of a 5-quart Dutch oven. If using fresh cherries, rinse, stem, and pit the cherries. If using frozen, place the cherries into a colander and allow to thaw completely before using.
• Discard the juice.
• Spread the cherries evenly over the bottom of the Dutch oven.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until frothy and lightened in color.
• Add the milk, vanilla, and flour and whisk to combine.
• Pour the batter over the cherries.
• Place 18 to 19 coals on a Dutch oven table.
• Place a cooling rack, or other wire rack, that is at least 2-inches high, directly over the coals.
• Place the Dutch oven on the rack directly over the coals.
• Cover with the lid and place 22 to 23 coals on top.
• Cook with the lid on for 25 minutes.
• Remove the lid and cook for another 5 minutes or until golden on top and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.
• Allow to cool for 30 minutes before removing from the Dutch oven.

It is way too easy to burn this on a fire, so I would suggest doubling the recipe (at least) in case the bottom burns, you can still cut it off and have enough left to eat!

The .5 way is Chocolate Milk Cherry Stout Beer

Typically, you would make a lambic beer with cherries but that is a little advanced for a second attempt at home-brewing. So, my husband and a few of his friends started making a chocolate milk stout beer from a standard kit with the intention of adding the cherries during fermentation. Let's hope you can't go wrong with chocolate and cherries! We should know the results around Halloween - I will update you of course on the results.

Thank you Burp blog and CherryLand’s Best for this opportunity!