A very warm welcome to Darci Hannah, whose new series A VERY CHERRY MYSTERY launches June 8th with CHERRY PIES & DEADLY LIES! Darci loves to bake for her family, and rumor has it she's a big coffee drinker, too!
Don't miss her giveaway below!
Thank
you, Krista, for having me as a guest on the Internet’s most scrumptious, and
cozy, website! Like the wonderful hosts of this blog, there’s little that gives
me more joy than sharing one of my favorite recipes with a friend, or being
able to tell them about a great book. Well, today’s my lucky day, because I get
to do both.
Cherry Pies & Deadly Lies (available June 8th),
is my first book in the new A Very Cherry Mystery series. And for this
cherry-loving Midwesterner, setting a cozy mystery in the heart of cherry
country (the beautiful Door Peninsula in Wisconsin) is basically a dream come
true. I grew up sampling the region’s signature dish, the classic Door County
cherry pie, and although I now live in Michigan, the largest producer of tart
cherries in the US, there’s just something so special about Door County that I couldn’t
help myself from writing about it. Whitney Bloom, my resourceful, millennial
heroine, is also very glad that I did.
It’s
late May and Chicago baker Whitney Bloom knows that the cherry orchards in
Cherry Cove, Wisconsin, are in full bloom. She grew up on an orchard there, and
her parents own the iconic Cherry Orchard Inn. Whitney also knows it’s the
weekend of the inn’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival, a fun-filled three-day
extravaganza of cherry-centric events, culminating with the highly competitive
Cherry Pie Bake-Off. Whitney’s grandma Jenn wins it nearly every year. This
year, however, Whitney keeps “forgetting” to return her mother’s calls. She knows
that her parents could really use her help at the inn, just as she knows that
her mother wants her to enter her signature deconstructed cherry pie in this
year’s bake-off, something Whitney is hesitant to do. Sure, she believes that
her delicious cherry creation is up for the test. But returning to Cherry Cove
would put her in the same town as Tate Vander Hagen, the former love of her
life, and she just isn’t prepared to do that. Tate (aka Vanderlicious) is her
kryptonite. Worse yet, her mother still adores him. It’s a dangerous
combination any way Whitney looks at it. Nothing can break her resolve to stay
in Chicago and focus all her energies on her cherry-centric online bakery, Bloom ‘n’ Cherries!—nothing, that is,
until she learns that there’s been a murder in the orchard. Her resolve is
further shattered when she learns that all fingers are pointing to her dad as
the culprit.
Of
course, I just couldn’t resist sharing one of my favorite cherry pie recipes!
This one isn’t in the book, but it’s a show-stopper. I mean, really, who
doesn’t want their own cherry pie?
Individual Door County Cherry Pies
Ingredients:
Unbaked pie crust for
two pies, (I cheat and use refrigerated pie crust for this recipe, but you’re
welcome to make your own!)
6 cups frozen tart
cherries (Although I recommend Door County cherries any Montmorency cherries
will do. Most grocery stores carry them in the frozen fruit section.)
1 cup sugar
4 Tbs. corn starch
1 tsp. lemon juice
3 Tbs. butter
For the topping:
¼
cup butter (1/2 a stick)
½
cup flour
½
cup brown sugar
Instructions:
1.
Preheat
oven to 375º
2.
Prepare
muffin pan by spraying each cup with nonstick spray (I use a giant muffin pan
for this recipe!)
3.
Roll
out pie crust. Find a cup or bowl large enough to cover the cups of the muffin tin,
and cut out dough circles. Line individual muffin cups with pie dough, crimping
the top of the crust. Set aside.
4.
Place
frozen cherries in large saucepan over medium heat. Add the teaspoon of lemon
juice, cover and stir occasionally. After a few minutes, the cherries should
start releasing juice. Keep covered and remove from heat.
5.
In
a small bowl mix sugar and cornstarch together until combined. Pour mixture
into the warm, juicy cherries and mix well.
6.
Return
cherries to the stove and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously until
the liquid loses its cloudy appearance and becomes thick and bubbly. Remove
from heat and stir in the butter.
7.
Make
crumble topping. Place flour and brown sugar in small bowl. Cut in the butter
until small crumbs form. Set aside.
8.
Fill
prepared muffin cups with warm cherry filling. Top with crumble topping and put
in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until done.
9.
Remove
from oven and let cool. Before serving remove the individual pies from pan and
top with your favorite vanilla ice cream and a dollop of freshly whipped whip
cream.
Enjoy!
Darci is giving away a copy of CHERRY PIES AND DEADLY LIES to one person who leaves a comment.
Don't forget to leave your email address so we can contact you if you win!
