Baking: Cherry-Chocolate Pie

I’m finally back to baking!! Who’s missed it over here since a few years back when it was a normal segment that occurred? I know that I have but the last few years, my mindset hasn’t quite been there yet. However, we’ll skip the frilly things and get right down to it.

I’ve been craving a cherry pie forever and can’t seem to find one so my solution, pick up some tart shells and cherry pie filling (because cherries aren’t in season now) and then add a little something to give it a fun little twist.

Its nothing sophisticated or difficult to this one but I needed to get back to baking and this was something that I’ve wanted to do quickly so here we are as a quick solution. We’ll get fancier baked goods to come!

Cherry-Chocolate Pie

Inspired by this recipe: https://food52.com/recipes/33749-heartbreak-pie-aka-black-bottom-cherry-pie

Ingredients

• Pre-made Tart Shells (I used Tenderbake Pie Shells not deep dish)
• 1 can Cherry Pie Filling (I used E.D. Smith)
• Dark Chocolate Chips (Selection brand)

What I did:

1. Thaw the tart shells for however long the package says, in my case, it was 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven at 425C.
3. Layer one of the pie shells with the dark chocolate chips.
4. Carefully pour or scoop the cherry pie filling as a layer on top of the dark chocolate chips.
5. Put the second tart shell over the top of the first to cover it up. Use a fork to carefully seal up the sides. Cut some slits on top to release steam while in the oven.
6. Bake for 45 minutes.

The final product looked like that above and a slice looked like this:

I did a few modifications to the recipe above as well as some things I’d have done differently.

• The major one is that I didn’t make a ganache and just pour in the chocolate chips to melt on their own which I thought gave it a little more texture because a part of it melted and the other part had some bites of chocolate chips.
• You can make your own cherry pie filling or your own tart shells. I would have made the cherry pie filling if cherries were in season but they aren’t unfortunately.
• For this particular recipe, if I were to do it again, I’d do probably 400C at 45 minutes instead, mostly because this time, it was a little over-browned on the side. Not yet burnt but on its way, so lower temp would probably be better.
• You can use any type of chocolate chip that you desire. For lactose-free concerns, this was my choice.

Final thoughts:

Now my usual baking endeavours, for sure. I haven’t baked in a long time so we’re starting off with some easy and simple recipe to just get back into the mood. This pie is actually quite good for quick solutions as the chocolate balances the very tart cherry pie filling without haven’t to add in more sugar than what is already there from this brand at least.  It turned out actually rather good and layered as I had hope with the chocolate forming a layer at the bottom and a tart cherry pie filling on the top.

What types of pies do you like to make (or to eat)?

Baking: Marbled Cherry Pie Cake

This recipe is literally hot off the press (or out of the oven?). Okay, okay. I’ll stop with the bad puns. I’ve been postponing baking a lot.  It’ll probably help me get out of my case of the winter blues but I just haven’t been all that excited about doing anything.  Still, I have been wanting to use up that can of cherry pie filling so I looked up something easy.  It turned out that since I don’t use boxes of cake mix, I had to end up finding a white cake recipe.  Its actually not too hard to do that so here we go! 🙂

Marbled Cherry Pie Cake

Inspired by this recipe via Pinterest: http://www.tammileetips.com/2015/04/marbled-cherry-pie-cake-recipe/

I really loved this idea but I had to pretty much find my own white cake recipe and mix in the cherry pie filling.

The White Cake recipe is from Butter’s Baked Goods by Rosie Daykins.  I’m going to give the white cake recipe as is first.  Go to the bottom to get the cherry pie cake way, although I was lazy and didn’t do it that way.

Butter’s Classic White Cake

Makes 1 cake, about 8 to 12 slices (2 7-inch circular cake pans)

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups pastry flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 egg whites
1/2 tbsp pure vanilla
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Onto a large piece of parchment paper, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add the sugar, egg whites and vanilla and continue to beat until well combined.
4. Turn the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients and buttermilk alternately (begin and end with the dry).  Scrape down the sides of the bowl at least twice during the mixing.
5. Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pans.  Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then invert onto wire racks to cool completely.

Marbled Cherry Pie Cake variation

• Instead of using the circular pans, use a 9 by 13 inch pan.  I didn’t and it took much longer to do and could be messy.
• To make this, open the a can of cherry pie filling and swirl in on top of the cake batter creating the marbled pattern. (I’m not too good at that)
• Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Changes and Substitutions

• I used all-purpose flour instead of pastry flour.  I’m changing to gluten-free flours and trying to get a variation to make my own blend so this is the last batch of all-purpose flour I will have.
• Buttermilk was replaced with unsweetened vanilla flavor almond milk.
• I never sift anything onto parchment paper but directly into a bowl.  Its less messy that way.

How did it turn out…

I cut corners because I was lacking time and all those funky excuses so I ended up putting it all into one tiny square baking pan.  The issue with that is that it ended up taking forever to bake and then I realized that it just needed time to set.  While it doesn’t look too great, I did cut off a bit of the burnt edges after it set.  The cake itself tastes really great.  Its still pretty moist and if there was any dryness, the cherry pie filling creates the needed balance and adds a little extra texture to it.

The only thing I’d change is to bake this in a longer pan, like I suggested up there with the 9 by 13 inch pan or somehow create the two tier cake as a cake box amount would normally do.

I’d definitely give this a second go with the improvements and maybe put an update here when it happens 🙂

Do you like cherry desserts? How do you use canned cherry pie filling?