So, I got a new toy. I've wanted this for quite awhile, and finally went ahead and bought it. When I tell people "I got a cherry pitter!" They say "do you pit cherries often?" That, is not the point. The point is that I can. For $15 I can pit a bag of cherries relatively quickly with an all but one success rate and little mess whereas before I've had to slowly go through and cut each one - creating a mess and getting bloody looking hands in the process.
And, what does one make when cherries are reasonably priced at the grocery store and you have a new cherry pitter?
Cherry Cobbler! Which I've also been craving (cobbler in general really. I've got to get to the peaches before they're gone). I have epicurious on my iphone and I wanted to get started when I got home, so I searched around on there for a recipe and found this one. I also followed the advice in the reviews and substituted in the recipe for the topping from the plum cobbler with cinnamon biscuits.
The best part about the cherry recipe was having to get a bottle of Lazzaroni Amaretto (made from an infusion of cookies?) which is a delicous addition to a cup of black tea. Mmm, or licking the cherry syrup in the pot (if I had a bigger pot I'd stick my head in it).
The only substitution I made was replacing the cream in the biscuit recipe with whatever "dairy" I had on hand, which happened to be Almond Milk. Oh, and I misread "1 tsp vanilla" for "1 tbsp" but no problem either way. I also don't know how many cherries I used. A bag and most of another from the store, however much that was.
The only difficult part was figuring out how to mix the dough, how to get it into the pan, and how to get it off my fingers!
Oh, I almost forgot - the real problem arose when I heard a sizzling sound from the oven and I realized that my container must not have been a 2 quart dish (or, too many cherries? too much biscuit?). The only thing I could do was to stick a cookie sheet under it and watch it boil over..
The end result was great and the spices really stood out. The biscuits were fluffy, the cherries were soft and... how do you describe that cherry feel? And of course, you can't have cobbler without vanilla ice cream.
The only thing I will do differently is to put it in a much larger container and lower the ratio of biscuit to cherries. In one review someone suggested using extra dough to make a separate biscuit, and I think that would be a good idea (they were definitely good enough to stand alone).
You may be asking yourself, really though, a $15 cherry pitter for the occasional cherry cobbler? Of course not! I perked up some plain non-fat yogurt by tossing in some pitted cherries, pureeing with my immersion blender, adding some more cherries whole, a bit of honey and had a quick, easy, and healthy ultra yummy snack.
And that's not all! Yes sir, this little gem will soon be working its way through a jar of kalamata olives! So delicious, yet so frustratingly filled with seeds! I salivate at the thought of some Greek inspired kalamata olive filled dish... (stay tuned!)
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