Yes, Leifheit.
A lovely gift from @mrsg47 . It is hand-operated but I don’t mind. It actually was fun. It is a stress reliever machine.
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It sounds German but made in Czech Republic. The last 5 digits is 37200.
@jcguarneri , Laurel would have fun using this machine.
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aka Cherrymat
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I find that by filling the hopper with fruit, a few cherries will jump out and into the pitted ones. It takes longer to drop them in one by one, but there are a lot fewer hidden pits in the process
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Agreed. We found a few pits among the pitted ones.
The pie came out OK but one the sour side. Need more sugar and my family prefer a sweeter pie.
Yayyyyyyyu!!!
I have a copy of the Fanny Farmer cookbook too! Gold cover. Great book!
Is it bought in US or in France? I see same one on Amazon, but reviews are not great, it could be a copycat…
@mrsg47 gave it to me before she moved but I do not know where she bought it from.
It is easy to use and clean. I like using it and think of it as a fun toy rather than a chore. It was good for the amount of cherries I harvested.
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I bought mine online
This is the recipe my daughter shared for the muffins she made with the cherries my grandson helped pick.
Sour Cherry Muffins
Ingredients
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
zest from 1 lemon
2 cups pastry flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups pitted sour cherries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line muffin pans for 18 muffins.
- In a bowl mix together buttermilk, water, canola oil and egg. Mix well.
- Add the lemon zest, flour, sugar, and baking powder. Mix well.
- Add the cherries. Mix only briefly until the cherries widely dispersed.
- Spoon batter into muffins cups until each muffin cup is about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 25 minutes.
- Let rest for a few minutes, and then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before eating.
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Sorry don’t remember.
Recipe: 6 cups sour pie cherries, 1 cup sugar mixed with 2 TB King Arthur Flour Pie Filling Enhancer (or use your favorite thickener), 1 TB butter, 2 tsp amaretto (optional, could also use vanilla). Mix and heat on stove until thickened. Cool and pour into pie crust, cook at 350F for one hour.
Thought this was timely. Opinion piece claiming that Americans have become so accustomed to tough, store-bought crusts, that the next generation won’t even be able to recognize the steps to making a good crust - the author thinks our national dessert may be doomed! (There’s also a link to a recipe for a purple raspberry pie that I want to try)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/01/america-forgot-how-to-make-pie-crust/
(I’ve done my part to teach the next generation - my young sons can make pies - and judging from my cooking groups, pie making is not a dying art just yet!)
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I couldn’t get sours this weekend (Well, I could have, but only U-pick, and I had to work). So I ended up with sweets, and they make a passable pie but…
So I did this, instead:
It actually works with pretty much any fresh fruit except apples (which I probably wouldn’t thicken with clearjel). I only use the almond with stone fruits.
In hindsight, I ought to have sprinkled some chopped or slivered almonds on top. I usually go with pecans for blackberries.
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Just learned a new ratio that you can use to generalize a pie recipe across fruits: Weigh the amount of fruit that will fit in your pie, then add 25% of that weight in sugar and 5.5% by weight in tapioca starch. Original quote from Stella Parks:
Whether it’s fresh or frozen (more on that here), a fruit’s weight gives us a reliable indication of its water content, so we can easily predict how much starch is needed to form a gel and how much sugar is needed to protect that starch from thermal hydrolysis, a.k.a. overcooking. You can read up on the science behind my formula here, but in practice all you have to know is this: Whatever your fruit, you’ll need 5.5% of its weight in tapioca starch and 25% of its weight in sugar, tossed in a crust, baked until bubbling-hot, and cooled to 85°F (29°C). With those rules, you can always count on a pie that’s juicy yet beautifully thick, never runny or gloppy.
What’s great about using a ratio is that it should work with just about any fruit or combination of fruits, and the only “recipe” you need is this ratio, a scale, and a calculator. I haven’t used this particular ratio before, but I’ve always guesstimated the same general idea by assessing how juicy a particular crop of fruit is, then adjusting cornstarch (I think I’ll switch to tapioca). The only other information you need is bake time and temp (also fairly generalizable) and whatever spices you want to add. She also makes a compelling case for more sugar than I usually use. The other thing is you can either take this ratio as gospel, or use it as a starting point to get a ratio that exactly matches your tastes. Stella herself mentions that this ratio is tuned to her preferences, but whatever your preference is will also have a ratio that produces predictable results.You just need to tease it out.
Here’s the blueberry pie link that I got that quote from:
And a cherry pie recipe using the same ratio, to keep things more on topic:
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