Wednesday, 30 March 2011

These Cherry Folditups Only Sound Easy and Inexpensive

Why am I calling this a cherry folditup, and not a cherry galette, its correct culinary name? Because one sounds like something that's easy to make, and one doesn't.

You may think it's silly to dumb-down the name just so a few more people watching on YouTube will give it a try, but it's very important to me that these recipes are accessible to as many people as possible. Oh, and by the way, did I mention you need to buy a $18 jar of cherries to make it? 

So much for that whole accessibility angle. Yes, I did use the world's most exclusive jarred cherries. Luxardo make's what they claim are the original Maraschino cherries. The deep, dark fruit is candied in Marasca cherry syrup, and I find the taste and texture totally irresistible.

And no, I didn't hit the lottery; I had these on hand because of some recipe testing I was doing for a client, and I couldn't think of any finer way to use them up. If things are going well, here's the Amazon link is case you want to try Luxardo cherries for yourself. However, as I say in the video, any cherry or other fruit pie filling will work beautifully.

As far as the crust goes, we have a couple of surprises for you. I decided to use whole wheat flour, as I wanted a dough that was a little nuttier and rougher around the edges, and this did the trick. I also used some orange vodka I had in the freezer for part of the liquid in the dough.

I'd seen Alton brown do this, and apparently the vodka adds moisture, but doesn't create gluten, and somehow that makes a tender, flakier crust, or something like that. I can’t be bothered to do any more research, but I can say it made one hell of a crust.

Of course, if anyone want to go all food nerd on us and explain what's going on molecularly, I think we'd all pretend to be interested. Enjoy!

Update! I call for whole wheat flour for this, but want to let you know I used the oxymoronically-named King Arthur Unbleached White Whole Wheat Flour. It's a very light wheat flour, and can probably be simulated by using 1/2 regular wheat flour and white flour. 


Ingredients:
6 oz whole wheat flour by weight (about 1 1/3 cup)
6 tablespoons ice cold butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup ice water (plus 1 tablespoon if not using vodka)
1 tablespoon ice cold orange or plain vodka, optional
1 cup cherry pie filling

View the complete recipe

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