Sour Cherry Pie with Lime | Summer Garden Issue

A recipe from the Summer, Plant & Prosper issue.

What I like about this pie is that it uses sour cherries (also known as pie cherries). Less sweet to begin with, they sweeten to just right with cooking, without getting too sickly sweet. There's a bit of nice tartness to them, complimented by the lime. I have a Sour Cherry tree myself. Montmorency cherries are known as the finest of sour cherries and are well worth seeking out or growing yourself! 

For the Crust 

2 sticks + 2 tablespoons cold unsalted 

butter 

3 cups all-purpose flour 

1 tablespoon sugar 

1/3 cup vegetable shortening 

6-8 tablespoons ice water 

For the filling 

All-purpose flour for surface 

1/2-3/4 cup granulated sugar, depending on how sweet you like your pies 

1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest 

3 tablespoons cornstarch 

Large pinch of kosher salt 

6 cups frozen sour cherries 

1 large egg, beaten to blend 

Demerara sugar or granulated sugar (for sprinkling) 

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To make the crust 

1. Whisk the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Place the diced butter in the bowl and use your hands to pinch it into the flour mixture until about half of the butter is in small, thin, flour-coated pieces and the rest is incorporated. 

2. One tablespoon at a time, add the ice water and mix with a wooden spoon or your hands until incorporated. Add more, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough begins to form a ball. 

3. Place the dough ball on a floured 

surface and roll it into a ball. Wrap in 

plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 

minutes. During this time, make the filling. 

To make the filling 

1. Preheat the oven to 425° Fahrenheit. Stir together the granulated sugar and lime zest in a large bowl. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar, 

releasing its oils. 

2. Whisk in the cornstarch and salt. Add frozen 

cherries and toss to coat. 

3. Now take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut it in half. Roll out each half into a circle, using your pie pan as a reference for how large. 

4. Use your roller to gently wrap up the dough and place it in the pie pan, gently fitting it into the bottom and sides. Fill with cherry filling. 

5. Now roll out the second ball of dough for the top of the pie. Here you can choose how to decorate your pie. A traditional lattice crust punched out holes, or any other shape or pattern you desire. It does help hold in the filling to crimp the edges of the crusts together. 

6. Brush the crust with a whisked egg and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Place in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. 

7. Place the pie on a baking sheet lined with parchment (to catch drips), and bake until the crust is golden (about 30 minutes). Reduce the oven temperature to 350° Fahrenheit and continue baking. If the crust starts to brown too quickly, gently tent foil over it. The pie is done when the juices are bubbling and the crust is a deep, golden brown, 50-60 minutes longer. 

8. Place the pie on a wire rack and let cool a little while before slicing (you still want it to be hot, but not mouth-scorching hot). Pie can also be baked a day ahead. Serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream! 

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The Honey Issue, A Peak Inside

An ancient ingredient, honey is valued across cultures and continents. In Tanzania, honey gatherers risk their lives crawling up sky-high trees to reach buzzing hives. Beekeepers hold sacred their supplies, and grades of honey range in price from reasonable to expensive.

In The Honey Issue, we explore all aspects of the golden liquid, from recipes, to history, to tutorials on things like making mead.

This recipe for Goat Cheese and Blackberry Tartlets uses honey in one of its most enjoyable and classic applications, drizzled over top of a crunchy, sweet/savory bite-size treat. Others, such as “Bee-Stung Cake” and “Za’tar-Baked Cauliflower with Pine Nuts” teach sweet and savory uses.

Articles explore the variations in honey. From the layers of a hive, to different types of bees, to varieties of honey across the globe.

Commonly used as a sweetener to replace sugar, the thick viscosity of honey changes the dough/batter it is added to. In these cookies, the floral notes of honey are complemented and brought forward by the floral notes of the orange blossom.

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It’s an interesting ingredient with a long history and list of applications explored in the 100 pages that make up the issue. There is a deep well of exploration out there and we’ve just scratched the surface. But we hope, with these articles, tutorials and recipes, that your interest in the “nectar of the gods” is sparked, and your taste buds tantalized.

Pick up a copy of The Honey Issue here.

Rose Geranium Cake with Rose Geranium Buttercream Frosting

This recipe is one taken from the FLORA issue. The entire issue, being focused on cooking with edible flowers, explores what I call "A Study of Nature's Buds & Blossoms,"  and takes a sweeter approach (It's the first and only issue focused exclusively on desserts). This issue was the perfect vehicle for me to play out a fantasy of photographing flowery things, which had been on my list for a long time. Really, it was my mother's idea, and when she suggested it, I thought "of course!." And so I dove in with Lilac Sugar Doughnuts, Crystalized Orchids, Candied Flowering Herbs and Rose-Scented Pavlovas swirled with streaky jam. Dried Rose petals and falling lilacs scented my house for a few months. 

As always, I wanted to make it as useful as possible, so I began the issue with a spread of edible flower botanical drawings (both sweet and savory),- from Begonias, Borage & Bergamot, to Chicory, Okra and Mustard. Many common plants have edible flowers that are often unrecognized or overlooked and letting your herbs flower can be one of the easiest and loveliest ways to discover this. In fact, often when I'm looking for edible flowers to cook with- which can be very hard and expensive to come by- I head to my local nursery to pick up starts. Believe it or not, this is often the cheapest and easiest way to go about it. Plus, you get the added benefit of adding the plant to your garden and producing your own flowers the next go-around.  

When it comes to cooking with flowers, it's understandable to be confused as to where to start and worried about how not to "over-flower" your food (no one likes their desert to taste like perfume). These flavors are infused with techniques such as steeping in water or cream that is added to a batter or whipped into a frosting, or wrapping a stick of butter and letting it sit overnight so the oils transfer. Throwing petals in sugar so the oils transfer is another great way to get these flavors into your dishes. 

Being particularly forgiving, sweet recipes are a great place to learn the process of infusing flavors and I built this issue around learning techniques through simple recipes you can make then use to make more complicated recipes. For example, Lilac Sugar is used to make Lilac Sugar Doughnuts and Crystalized Flowers are used to make Iced Sugar Cookies with Crystalized Flowers. All in all the issue includes twelve recipes, including a fanciful spread of five floral cakes, a book guide (one of my favorites yet!), a restaurant guide, and an interview with a florist, all relating back to the floral theme. 

Because, as Emma Goldman once wrote:

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck." 

Rose Geranium Cake with Rose Geranium Buttercream Frosting

Makes 1 two-layer cake

I love this cake. It's beautiful, feminine and has macarons on it. It also really delivers in terms of flavor. I always imagine it at tea parties, garden parties and in other, quite ladylike appearances. Rose Geranium and other scented geraniums are available at many nurseries this time of year, making it the perfect spring cake for your upcoming lunch, garden party or gathering with friends. 

Ingredients: 

Cake

18 Rose Geranium leaves

2 sticks butter, unsalted

3 cups all purpose flour, plus more

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup whole milk

1 vanilla bean (I love Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans)

1 3/4 cup sugar

6 large egg whites

Frosting

4 Rose Geranium leaves

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Pinch of sea salt

1/3 cup cold water

5 drops red food coloring

3 drops orange bitters

To Make: 

Cake

1. The night before you plan to make the cake, rub 6 of the Geranium leaves to release their oils, wrap around the sticks of butter, warp again in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. 

2. The next day when you are ready to make the cake, let the butter reach room temperature and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 8" cake pans. Rub the remaining Rose Geranium leaves with your fingers and line the bottom of the cake pans with them. 

3. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another medium bowl, combine the milk, water and vanilla bean seeds. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl and hand beater, unwrap the leaves from the butter and cream together with the sguar until fluffy. Beat in the egg whites one at a time. Add small amounts of the flour mixture, alternating with the milk mixture, until incorporated. 

4. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake pulls out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. 

Frosting

1. The night before, combine the Rose Geranium leaves with the sugar in an airtight container. Let sit overnight. 

2. Remove the leaves and mix the sugar with the egg whites, cream of tartar, salt and water in a large heat-proof bowl and beat for one minute. Place the bowl over a pot of barely simmering water and whip with a whisk until you see stiff peaks. Remove from the heat and whip in the food coloring and bitters. Place 1 completely cooled cake on a serving dish, frost, top with other cake and frost all over. Decorate as you please with flowers and macarons.