The life of a food blogger.
These came out of the oven at 11 o’clock last night. Late, I know.
The cherry filling was bubbling. It looked like their little pie hearts were pumping, and all the juices were bleeding out.
My dad pulled one out of the tray and wolfed it down while it was piping hot. Which was weird, because he hardly ever eats the things I bake (he likes to be difficult, you see).
Then he had another. And another.
Then my mum had one. And she wanted another.
I had to stop them. I literally had to say “STOP!”. No more eating my pies!
Because if they kept going, there would be nothing left to photograph.
And I certainly wasn’t going to be photographing these little crumble pies at midnight. I had to wait for natural light.
So that’s the life of a food blogger. It’s strange, calling myself that.
Anyway. It’s weird isn’t it? Baking something and stopping people from eating it because you have to take photos of it the next day when the sun comes out? Yeah, weird.
But everyone wanting to gobble them all up? That must be a good sign.
LITTLE SOUR CHERRY PIES
For the pastry and crumble
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
125g cold unsalted butter, cubed (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp)
pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cold water
For the sour cherry filling
1 x 600g jar of sour cherries
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornflour
Strain the cherries, reserving 2 tablespoons of the liquid. Mix the sugar and cornflour into the reserved liquid. Add the liquid back into the sour cherries and set aside.
To make the dough, put the flour, sugar, butter and salt in a food processor or electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Remove 1/2 cup of this mixture. Mix it with your hands until it resembles crumble. Set aside.
Add the egg yolk and cold water to the remaining mixture. Continue to mix on low until a dough forms. Gather the dough together and form it into a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease a 12 hole muffin pan.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is 3-4mm thick.
Using a large round cookie cutter or upside-down glass, cut out 12 rounds of dough that will fit your muffin holes.
Line the muffin holes with the rounds of dough. Fill with 1 tbsp with the sour cherry mixture. Top each little pie with crumble.
Bake for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Eat while hot and bubbling. Makes 12 little pies.
