Fruit pies made our list of the eight best desserts for the 4th of July because there is such a wide variety of fantastic, fresh fruit available right now. But just because it's a good dessert for the 4th doesn't mean you have to wait until then to make one. Cathy, at My Little Kitchen, diligently pitted an entire batch of sour cherries in preparation for making a sour cherry pie. The combination of warm cherry filling, flaky crust and vanilla ice cream is one made in heaven - though in this case it was made in Maryland. Anywhere there is a good pie is close enough.
Unfortunately for us, Cathy didn't share her recipe, but you can always try your hand at Barbara's Sour Cherry Lattice Top Pie, which is sure to produce an outstanding result.
7-02-2006 @10:48PM Bruce Dearborn Walker said... When my mother-in-law and father-in-law moved to CT at 23 to raise their daughter (my wife!)in 1964, his father gave him a cutting from his own sour cherry tree. That cutting is now at least 25 feet high and last year gave us a mighty batch of sour cherries. My mother-in-law, as you can imagine, makes the best sour cherry pies in the world.
They gave me a half gallon or so of the cherries, and I put them into good quality vodka with a bit of vanilla extract, a tablespoon of ouzo, and sugar to taste. After two weeks I added some lemon rind, and waited three days. I was amazing. The water in the vodka pulls out some flavors, and the alcohol pulls out flavors that our saliva doesn't. It actually tastes more cherry than the pies. After about three weeks after it is served, it begins to lose some flavors, so it needs to be drunk fast--not too hard in the summer. It's great over ice, or in a tall glass with ice and soda.
You can do the same with strawberries.
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7-11-2006 @7:16AM Noo said... I had to send you the link below describing one woman's battle with sour cherries (excuse the yarn content)!
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2006/07/05/up_a_tree_without_a_paddle.html
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7-30-2006 @1:39PM MJ said... That wonderful crust alone is worth the praise! The fruit and ice cream I think I gained weight just looking........Beautiful picture Lucky person who gets to eat it.
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