The first thing I remember about sour cherry goes back to my childhood. It was a hot Summer day and we were on holiday at our village. We always went to our village to visit my grandma (dad’s mom) and relatives in Summer after a studying term.
I used to look forward to going there as I loved to spend time with villagers. They woke up at 5 a.m and went to their fields to work. Their fields located away from the village, it took at least one hour on foot. Some of them had donkeys and they used to put me on one of the donkeys. I was a child from the city for them, so they thought that I was so fragile and wasn’t able to walk the whole way. Actually, I used to love going on a donkey, so I wouldn’t refuse. They’d sometimes water the yard, sometimes pick their products. I was at my teens and I was crazy about going to the fields with the villagers at that early time of the day. They would hit the trail so early and they’d generally have breakfast at their fileds on earth. Everything was so natural then. I knew the pleasure of picking a tomato from its branch and I would prefer not eating anything until we arrived the fields.
I wore the white dress that my grandma gave me as a gift on that hot summer day before meeting the villagers to go to the fields. When we arrived to the field of one of the villagers, I saw a tree full of sour cherries. They were so tempting, so I asked its owner if I could climb on it. As they would all love me much, I didn’t have to insist much. I was on the tree after a few minutes. The cherries were so sour, but I always love everything sour. After I was full with sour cherries, I thought that mom would be so happy when she saw the sour cherries I picked as she always loved to make sour cherry jam. And I started to pick sour cherries on the skirt of my dress, which was as white as snow. I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Mom got so ngry with me when I returned with my pinkish dress. She thought that this was my disrecpectfulness to my grandma as it was her gift. However, grandma didn’t agree with her and she said that she was proud of me. For her, it was a good thing that a child thought his/her mom. I was saved from a big scolding thanks to her.
Mom didn’t make jam from those cherries on that day, she made a yummy pie instead as a reward for me. And I learnt how to make it from mom after years and wanted to share it with you.
Vişneli Pay
Ingredients
– 1 egg, at room temperature
– 4 tbsp yogurt
– 125g butter, at room temperature
– 6 tbsp vegetable oil
– 5 tbsp sugar for the dough
– 1 tbsp baking powder
– 3 ½ cups flour
– 2 cups sour cherry, pits removed
– 3 tbsp sugar for its filling
– Sugar powder for garnish
We should start with the sour cherries first. After removing their pits, sprinkle 3 tbsp sugar on them and wait.
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
Meanwhile you can start to prepare its dough. Mix the egg, yogurt, butter, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder and flour and knead well to combine them well. Divide the dough into two.
After this time, you’ll see that cherries release their juice. Squeeze all of them in your hands into a cup.You can use a strainer for this.
Oil a circular cake mold and spread one of the dough balls on its bottom.
It should cove all its bottom, so just use your palms and press on it, it will spread bit by bit.
Put the squeezed sour cherries on it. Then sprinkle a little flour on the counter and roll the other dough out on it. It must be as big as the size of the cake mold. Then gently take it and put it on cherries to cover all of them.
Make an X mark on top of the pie before putting it into oven so that every part of it cook equally. Cook it for 50 minutes and do not open the oven during this time. After the end of the time, take it out and let it cool.
Turn the cake mold upside down to remove your pie from it. Sprinkle sugar powder on it while serving.
You can serve the sour cherry juice along with the pie. I did so and it was great!
What a wonderful story. We had a similar upbringing in that my siblings and I grew up in town and every summer we would visit our grandparents and of course we had to go and explore, live off the earth. I loved to gather freshly laid eggs and pick the fruits and vegetables, and as you pointed out got quite stained in the processed, but those memories are so special.
I love sour cherries and love a sour cherry mix that I add to about everything. I can only imagine how tasty this pie is that you fixed and all the great memories it brought you in the making. I will have to see if I can find some sour cherries of my own to try making this pie.
Oh, this is just lovely! What a beautiful memory and delightful recipe you’ve shared with us. This story proves that children are the entire community’s privilege and responsibility – it sounds you had a wonderful relationship with them! Your thoughtfulness in picking the sour cherries for your mom was well rewarded and now, we get to share in it, too!
What a beautiful recipe and pictures, really a summer gift but totally worth in winter too 🙂
Anyway the cherries aren’t from local production here.
Cheers!
Gera
I love the back story behind this pie,and the photos are really beautiful, great presentation and the pie itself looks so yummy!
this looks so good. I love sour cherries so much, and the cake looks so light and spongey to go along with them. I love the idea of drizzling ti with extra cherry juice.
I love your story about the cherry tree and your dress! Sounds like a fun summer. Your pie looks so good too. The texture looks incredibly tender.
It’s always great to make dishes we used to eat as a child. Thanks for sharing the story with us. I love how the cherries are right at the center of the pie. Mmmmm…delicious!!
Your cherry pie looks incredible! the crust looks so moist and delicious and I just adore sour cherries. I too have memories of picking and eating the sour cherries during our summer vacations in a village. We often made Russian-style dumplings with sour cherries, always my favorite.
Sour cherry pie looks mouth watering!
What a wonderful story!!!Your pie looks amazing.
Those really look so good Zerrin. I love sour cherry too.
This is beautiful with those lovely cherries sandwiched in between. And what a cute story!
Your photos are so pretty! I love the story, thank God for Grandmas! And this pie looks so delicious!
Tangled- I miss those times so much now. Wish there was a time machine and I could go back.
Gera- I wish we could see cherries on stands longer, but it lasts just about a month here. If you want to try this anyway, you can substitute cherries with chopped apples or apricot. Just saute tehm until tender, mix with 3 tbsp sugar and the rest is the same.
Oyster- Those times are absolutely so special even thought we didn’t understand it then. I love mixing sour cherries with yogurt and little sugar as a perfect dessert for summer.
Jessie- Thank you. Believe or not we ate it all in just two days.
Lauren- Thank you so much. It was tast in any version.
Lisa- It was as great as the previous summers. Its texture was more tender than a usual tart.
Jenn- I agree, it helps us remember those days when we make our childhood dishes.
Natasha- I’ve never seen or tried Russian style dumplings from cherries. You made me curious now.
Parita, Erica, Elra, Reeni, Faith- Thank you all. It’s great to see that my childhood pie is loved by all of you. This makes it more valuable.
That looks really delectable. Love the photo too.
Zerrin, loved your story:)) I would always stain my clean cloths with red mulberries, the type that has lots of juice in it:))
Your pie looks so good. I am saving the recipe to make whenever I stumble upon sour cherries here. They are a rare find here in California:((
That pie looks scrumptious. I liked your story, though I’m glad you didn’t get into trouble. Sounds like it was interesting growing up for you.
I love that this is more cake like than pie. Looks awesome.
I love sour cherries!! You can’t really get them in the states unless their canned.. But in Hungary we use them all the time.
yumyumm