Guest Post by Jennifer Schell for The Canadian Food Experience Project
Jennifer is on holidays this month and has sent me this article to post on her behalf. Thrilled to have this level of commitment for The Canadian Food Experience Project! The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7 2013. Jennifer’s first post is here. Participants share collective stories through regional food experiences to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity.
I was motivated by Jennifer’s recipe as all the ladies in the neighbourhood where I grew up used to make one like this, and instead of the walnuts, they would add coconut. Fresh cherries were definitely not used, either, so I had to give this recipe a go!
The Okanagan cherries only hit the prairies for a couple of short each year and they are such a treat: the blacker, the firmer, the sweeter, the better. That was when all we got were the Bings. They are still my favourite, but I haven’t done a tasting, so I have much to learn about sweet cherries.
I made the square in a spring form pan, and the slice above is enough for three. It is very rich and the cherries developed a nutty almond flavour when baked that is irresistible. The golden syrupy filling with the crunchy crust is addictive.
Forgive me, while I savor the moment. Please enjoy Jen’s article, below, her recipe and he lovely children wearing my favourite earrings of cherry season! Oh-la-la!
July 2013 A Regional Canadian Food: Okanagan Valley Cherries
It is cherry season now in the sunny Okanagan Valley! As always, it is best to buy direct from a farm or Farmer’s Market. One of the great gifts of living in such a bountiful region is being able to shake the hand of the farmer that grew your food. Do take time and do that, whenever possible.
As I watched my nieces dive into a bag of fresh cherries, red juice dripping down on their t-shirts and on their cheeks, I was immediately taken back to my childhood. The unbridled pleasure of popping as many cherries as possible into your mouth in a row seems to be a sort of instinctual frenzy with the arrival of this magical fruit. As soon as the first cherries were ready (or in fact, still a little green) my brothers and I would each climb a tree (Vans were my favorite variety), claim a branch, perch, and rhythmically, like well-oiled machines, eat and spit pits until we were close to bursting. Like magic, the resulting stomachache every year would be forgotten when the next season arrived – and we would begin our annual custom all over again. Oh, and cherries make great earrings too.
This is a favorite cherry recipe passed down through the generations of tree fruit farmers in my family. After your initial pig out on fresh cherries, try this delightful dessert.
Fresh Cherry Slice
Ingredients
Ingredients for the Crust:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
Ingredients for the Filling:
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp . baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups fresh local cherries , pitted and quartered
- 1/2 tsp . vanilla
- 1/4 tsp . salt
- 1 cup local walnuts , chopped
Instructions
Instructions for the Crust:
-
Cut 1/2 cup butter into 1 cup flour mixed with 2 tbsp icing sugar
-
Press into 9x9 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes
-
Set Aside
Instructions for the Filling:
-
Combine eggs, sugar, flour and baking powder
-
Add cherries, vanilla, salt, walnuts
-
Spread mixture atop crust; bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Recipe Notes
To double recipe use 9x13 pan
Jen, we are still enjoying our seasonal pig-out of these sweet, lush, Okanagan Cherries. Mmmmm! And, I did make your recipe. Here’s how. Would love to hear how I did!
So there you go. Make this recipe in a square pan, not a round one. One bite of Fresh Cherry Slice, and then a few fresh cherries; One bite of Fresh Cherry Slice, and then a few fresh cherries…
I just love tried and true old family recipes and really appreciate this one as we have cherries in abundance here too in the summer.
Lindsay,
I just bought some BC cherries to make Jennifer Schell’s cherry slice. That is what she shared for this month’s project: Cherries, and the cherry slice recipe.
Can’t wait to try it.
🙂
V
Yummy, cherries are among my favourite fruits. Love the cherry earrings! I used to do that too. : )
Liz,
Love the photo, too – as I think we all used to do that! And Jennifer’s daughters are so adorable!
🙂
V
This is definitely a recipe that I will add to my collection of outstanding cherry recipes and you know how I love cherries! A friend brought some beautiful big black sweet cherries from Kelowna yesterday and some are going into this slice recipe today. I love the Canadian Food Experience Project, Valerie! What a wonderful way to showcase Canada.
Yes I do – this isn’t my recipe, as you know, Helene, but it is yummy. I think I will work on adding more fruit and cooking the crust longer or using the French Cookie Crust. I didn’t add the nuts, which definitely changed the texture of the “square” and it was significantly different the first day from the second. Probably it is gone day one… but the almond notes from the cherries that were so pronounced when warm from the oven were barely apparent the following day, and the crust seemed to be too thick for the topping…. but, that could also be because of the shape I used.
🙂
V
We don’t make Cherry pies in our family but I do love to add cherries to my crisps or crumbles. It had such a flavor. I like your pictures 🙂
Helene
This is a square or a slice… but it does look like a pie in the pan I used… it is far too rich to be served a slice as big – yet, I did notice it disappeared very fast!
🙂
V
This is a dish that’s hard to mess up, and I did like my first outcome, however I am compelled to make these criticisms. 1.) Way too much butter in the crust recipe; after adding the filling to the baked crust, the oven began to smoke like Hades from the butter leaching out the bottom of my 2-piece tart pan. 2.) Did the recipe writer and the cook whose progress was photographed for this piece even know each other? The recipe calls for quartered cherries; photos clearly depict halves, which method I followed. The recipe calls for chopped walnuts: I see none in the photos. I broke the nuts by hand to yield larger, more uniform pieces, avoiding the bits that result from chopping. The recipe calls for a 9×9 or 9×13 pan, and the photos clearly depict a round tart pan. Despite these anomalies, I’ll make it again, with modifications.
Wonderful to hear from you, Michael, and thrilled to hear you enjoy Jennifer’s recipe – as I am sure she will also be. To respond to your comments:
1. I also used a springform pan and didn’t experience this issue at all. Surprised to hear it. Make it every year without issue.
2. I am the person who owns this site, writes here and made Jennifer’s recipe – so likely “the cook” you are referring to – and yup – we know each other. I did explain in the text that I was insprired by her recipe and didn’t use a square pan etc. I chose to leave the cherries larger as that’s how I like them. I left out walnuts as I don’t care for nuts in squares. Hope that explains the anomalies for you. 🙂
Glad you make it often and it will be helpful for others to read your feedback, too, I am sure. I appreciate you making the time.
🙂
Valerie