Cherry Turnovers | Cherry Pie Lollipops

Cherry season seems to be in full swing, at least they're up to 60% regular price at my local grocery store, so we've been buying them left and right. Everywhere I turn is some cherry dessert or another...in the bakery display, on every other blog I read...it's had me just craving them! I decided to try a cream cheese pastry dough for these and a simple cherry pie filling. I seriously s-u-c-k at pastry dough so I have no idea why I decided to bother with these.

Half of the recipes I read require you to have a full size food processor, and for the 3 of you that regularly read this blog, you know it's on my Two on Tuesday wishlist! The other recipes say you just have to have a dough blender, and I think the latter would be correct...too bad I didn't wait to try the recipe until I'd bought one! I could not keep my dough cold enough while mixing and rolling, but it still tasted great. There is absolutely no discernible cream cheese flavor, just really good flaky dough.

Basic Cream Cheese Dough

1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Tbs granulated sugar
¼ tsp table salt
8 Tbs unsalted butter (1 stick), cold, cut into ½ inch pieces
4 ounces cream cheese (cold), cut into ½ inch pieces
2 tsp lemon juice from 1 lemon
1-3 Tbs water (ice cold)

Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Add butter and cream cheese cubes, blending with a hand dough blender until the butter and cream cheese clumps are about the size of peas. Add lemon juice and 1 Tbs, with a wooden spoon, mix until just combined, adding 1-2 Tbs cold water if needed.

Tips:
1. Use ice water so that your water is super cold.
2. Refrigerate dough at any/all stages as needed to keep it cold

Cherry Turnovers

4 cups pitted fresh cherries
½ cup sugar
4 Tbs cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
¼ tsp almond extract
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Assembly & Cooking Instructions

1. Liberally flour a clean, dry surface. Roll out your cream cheese dough to desired thickness (I went for pretty thin). Using anything circular in the size you'd like your turnovers to be, cut out circles. For the large turnovers, I used an upside down small plate, for the smaller turnovers, use a regular drinking glass. Cut out your circles and place on a cookie sheet. If the dough is too warm, refrigerate for 10 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 400° F. Using the tip of your finger, spread an egg wash around the edge of half of the circles. Spoon in cherry filling, don't over fill!

3. Fold over, clean side to egg wash side. Crimp around the edge of your turnovers, and cut 2-3 slits in the top to allow steam to release.

4. Brush the top with butter, sprinkle with sugar and bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.

Egg Wash: Whisk together 1 egg and Tbs water.

Not many cherries fit in here, you can cut them in half so that it fits a little better.

For the little guys, I cut the cherries into small pieces, that's maybe one cherry there!

Sprinkle with powdered sugar..yum...

Aren't these little ones cute, and bite sized!

When making the lollipops, wrap your sticks in tin foil so they don't burn. These are two circles of dough, one on top of the other. Thanks for the idea Bakerella.

They were not at all sure about these, didn't take them long to dig in...

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