Cherry Vanilla Smoothie

Pantry Recipe: Canned cherries and vanilla pudding.

I love a good smoothie and this is one of my new favorite combos. I got a new immersion blender for my birthday and I love that I can make single smoothies right in the cup. It is so fun and easy. You can, of course, use a blender if you don't have an immersion blender or want to make a larger amount. This recipe is good for one large or two small smoothies. 

It is also pantry friendly, using up some of my canned cherries from food storage. I love having cherries smack dab in the middle of winter. I feel like I am cheating the chilly dreary weather. In addition, I found some frozen chopped apples that had been coated in cinnamon sugar that were left over from apple tart recipe.

The Recipe:
 1/4 Cup canned cherries (click here for my no sugar added canned cherries)
1/4 to 1/2 cup cherry juice from jar (depending on your desired consistency)
4 oz Vanilla yogurt (I use greek yogurt)
1 TB sugar free vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup crushed ice.
1/4 cup small frozen apple chunks (they had been pretreated with cinnamon sugar and lemon juice). You could use finely chopped apple here instead with a dash of cinnamon. 

Add to large cup or blender and blend until smooth.  
So delicious!

Cherry Mascarpone Tartlets

Creamy indulgent bites of heaven. I feel a little less guilty eating these despite the fact that the recipe is anything but low fat, because they are just little bites of indulgence. Instead of a whole plate full of the stuff. I also love them because they were the perfect use for the last can of canned cherries. I am on my last jar of canned cherries and the neighbor boys better come knocking with their ruby red cash crop soon.

I am pretty delighted with myself for thinking up these tasty treats to feed the husband's band on band night. Unfortunately I had a few too many tastes of the cream cheese pastry dough. It could have been a guiltless (my version of guiltless is probably different than yours) treat if only I had restrained myself. And oh that mascarpone filling. So creamy!

Cherry Mascarpone Tartlets
Makes appx 18 tartlets

I love this cream cheese pastry dough, It is easy and perfect for tartlets. I use it for all kinds of tart recipes.
1/2 Cup butter softened
1/2 Cup cream cheese, softened
1 Cup all purpose flour

Filling:
1/4 cup chocolate chips
6 oz carton of mascarpone
2 T powdered sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
Cherries, pitted. I used canned but fresh will be even more tasty.

Tarts
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add flour and beat just until a soft dough forms.

Cover with a plastic wrap and chill one hour or overnight.

Shape chilled dough into 1 inch balls. Place each ball of dough into mini tart of mini muffin pan. Dip a tart shaper or back of spoon into flour and press into dough to form tart shells. Pierce shells with fork.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown.

Remove tarts from oven and place 3 to 4 choco chips in bottom of each tart. They will melt on their own. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile prepare the mascarpone filling. Beat mascarpone, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove tartlets from pan. Fill each tartlet with mascarpone filling and top with one or two cherries. Serve immediately or cover and keep chilled.

Crockpot Cherry Cobbler Pudding

This recipe could just be the poster child for crockpot cooking with your food storage. It is tasty and pantry friendly and an easy crockpot dessert. I have had these gem jars of canned cherries sitting in my pantry waiting for a recipe like this to come along and invite them to dessert.

This recipe came from another library cookbook find -- "Best Loved Slow Cooker Recipes." What happens if you never return a book to the library. I am just asking, theoretically of course.

Enjoy the warm sweet comfort food of
Cherry Cobbler Pudding.

Mixture #1
3/4 Cup sugar
2 1/2 TB of margarine or butter
1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
3/4 Cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix #2
1 quart of cherries or two 16 oz cans and juice.
2 Cups sugar
1/4 Cup all purpose flour
1/4 Cup butter or margarine, melted

Lightly grease inside of slow cooker.

Mix #1 combine sugar and butter until crumbly. Add flour, milk, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Pour into crock-pot.

Mix #2: Combine all ingredients thouroughly until sugar is dissolved. Pour over mixture in croc-pot. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or until dough that has risen to top is solid. Serve warm.

Canned Cherries in Juice

By now you know that I don't like to add tons of sugar to my food. I especially like to avoid a ton of refined sugars in my canned and preserved food. So, I bring you my canned cherries. I almost can't wait to pull these little jewels out of the pantry this Winter. But I can definitely wait for Winter. I raw packed these cherries in 100percent no sugar added apple/cherry juice. I usually can my peaches in a white grape/peach juice blend and they are beautiful peachy treats in the winter.

I am a big fan of Old Orchard frozen juice concentrates. They have no added sugar and come in really great juice blends. I love their apple cherry juice. If you can't find this juice, plain apple juice or white grape juice will work for this recipe.

I am also a really big fan of a cherry pitter. I would not can cherries without one. They make life easier and even the kids love to use this contraption. In my house the cherry pitter means I will have instant cherry pitter volunteers.

Recipe
1 can of pepared apple cherry juice concentrate will fill about 2 1/2 quarts of raw packed cherries. So stock up on enough to fill however many jars you are canning.

Pitted cherries 2 1/2 pounds per quart.

Fruit Fresh (ascorbic acid)-Optional

Prepare your fruit. This can take a little time. Fill large bowl of cherries with water. Discard any cherries that float to the top. Rinse cherries and pit cherries. If you don't pit your cherries poke with a sterilized needle to prevent bursting during processing. Place cherries in water with Fruit Fresh to avoid discoloration (follow the directions for quantity on the package.
Drain when ready to place in jars.)

Sterilize your glass jars and rims(Remember I just use the sanitize setting on my dishwasher) and keep warm until ready to use. Simmer your jar lids in warm water (Do not boil).

Heat juice to boiling on the stove.

Raw pack method:
Place appx. 1/2 cup of juice in warm jars. Pack with cherries, shaking gently to settle cherries and then pour hot juice over cherries until 1/2 inch from the top. Using a plastic knife, gently run the plastic knife up and down through the cherries to remove bubbles. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean wet cloth or paper towel to remove any sticky juice. Place lids and rings on jars and process in a boiling water bath or steam canner for recommended time. Processing times depend on size of jar and your elevation above sea level. Google or call your local extension service for safe canning times. I processed my quarts for 40 minutes because I am over 6000 ft above sea level. Jars were sealed properly if you are no longer able to push up and down on the lid.

Hint: Make sure there are no chips or nicks in your jar rims.