cherry cherry bo berry

Why do all of my cookbooks only have one entry under "cherries": cherry pie? There must be hundreds of interesting things to do with this super seasonal delight. Let the search begin. But meanwhile, cherry turnovers will have to suffice. Despite seriously underestimating the amount of sugar required to make cooked fruit appropriately sweet (why do I always second second guess the recipe?), they are still quite yum!

Of course, turnovers are all about the dough (as my husband reminds me) and this sour cream dough was great. (I will post later about my other fav dough that uses a cool smearing method to create extra flakiness). The recipe (below) comes from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book, which has given quite poor results on several other recipes, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Preheat oven to 425F (220C). Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

Sour Cream Dough: 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 4 TB unsalted cold butter, 1/3 cup sour cream, 1 TB milk
Mix flour and salt. Cut butter into flour (like with pie dough) until resembles coarse bread crumbs. Add sour cream and mix lightly with fork until just moistened. Sprinkle on milk and mix again with fork. Gather dough in your hand and if it holds together, it's ready. Otherwise, keep adding a couple drops of milk until it does - don't get it too wet or mix too much. Once ready, form dough into cake 1-inch thick. Dust with flour. Roll into circle 1/8 thick. Cut 4.5-inch circles.

Fruit filling: 1.5 cups cherries, peaches, apricots, plums, or whatever. Pit and quarter the fruit.

Assemble: 7 TB sugar, 2 TB cream
Place a little fruit on one side of each dough circle - not too much or dough will break. I used about 3-4 cherries in each. Sprinkle about 2 tsp of sugar on each fruit mound - do not skimp! Fold over dough to form half-moon shape. Press edges together with fingers, then crimp with fork. Place turnovers on cookie sheet, about 1-inch apart. Brush top of each with cream then sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 mins until pastry is lightly browned (rotate once if necessary). Eat within one day.