On Father’s Day, Owen’s aunt and uncle came to visit. Cherries and strawberries were ripe for picking at a local u-pick farm, so we decided to venture there for some fresh summer fruit and outdoor fun.
Owen had a wonderful time with his Uncle Tony and Aunt Liza. He liked picking the strawberries and cherries, although he wasn’t so good at distinguishing which ones were rotten or not ripe. No berry was rejected by Owen.
We came home with a big bag of sweet cherries. Even though they weren’t sour cherries, I couldn’t resist using the cherries for a baked dessert. Despite not having the tartness of sour cherries, I think the sweet cherries made a perfectly delicious treat: an easy crostata. Plus, they’re much easier to pit than sour cherries!
Here’s the crostata recipe:
Dough for one 12″ pie crust
1 pound fresh sweet cherries
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons flour
First, pit the cherries. I’m not going to pretend otherwise – this task is not fun. Nobody likes to pit cherries. It’s about as fun as picking crab meat. I use my smallest measuring spoon to dig out the cherry pits. If you know any easier way, please let me know.
Set aside the cherries. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the cream cheese with the sugar and vanilla until thoroughly combined.
Going back to the cherries, add cinnamon…
Brown sugar…
Lemon juice…
And flour, which keeps it from getting too runny.
Stir everything together.
Roll out the pie dough into a 12″ circle. This doesn’t need to be perfect. Uneven edges make the crostata look more rustic.
Place the dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spread the cream cheese mixture onto the pie dough, leaving about 2 inches around the edges.
Top the cream cheese with the cherry mixture.
Then fold the edge of the crust over the cream cheese/cherry filling.
If you want, brush some milk on the crust and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the crust is golden. Yum.
As you might imagine, this tastes extra good when it’s warm from the oven and served with ice cream.
After eating a slice, I almost wished I had more cherries to pit.
This is why I live for summer. There’s nothing like fresh fruit from the garden or orchard. Can’t wait for the peaches and blueberries in July!
Looks yummy! I use a cherry pitter. Just bought some cherries and pitted some for our fruit salad. Joe then puts the pits in some vinegar for cherry vinegar. Nice on summer salads.