My Valentine’s Day Cherry Pies. Simple sugar-sprinkled cherry hand pies – a simple but thoughtful gift for your Valentine that he or she is sure to love, and hopefully share with you 😉
I really love using fresh, wholesome ingredients in my recipes.
But sometimes the tinned shop bought stuff rules.
Most of my tinned essentials consist of chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, sweetcorn and tuna fish. So on the whole, not too bad really.
You won’t catch me buying:
- Tinned stewing steak – reminds me of dog food
- Tinned ham – with it’s slimy, jelly-like texture (blurgh)
- Baked beans with those little sausages in – do those sausages even contain meat?
Tinned cherry pie filling though. Let’s talk about that. I use it in a number of my sweet recipes, for example in my Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Brownies (2 deserts in one)!
Mostly made up of a sweet, thick, starch-thickened sauce, you really have to dig around to find the actual cherries. This kind of thing would normally put me off, but no.
I want to stick my hand in that tin – winnie-the-pooh-style – and dig around in there, scoff those cherries and lick off that ‘cherry’ sauce afterwards.
It’s bad but it’s good. Very confusing.
l’m not the only one with this problem. Empty a tin out in a bowl, use some of it for these cherry pies, leave the rest on the side for about 5 hours (because I haven’t got round to washing up yet), and I will find Chris with his hand in that bowl when he thinks no-one is looking (true story – happened 6 days ago).
l didn’t judge.
So yes, this Valentine’s Day Cherry Pies recipe uses tinned cherry pie filling and ready-made pastry. So I’m not sure it’s even actually a recipe. I did use egg wash and a sprinkling of demerara sugar too, so maybe I can get away with it?
Make these little hearts for your loved-one to put a smile on their face.
Even better, make them with your kids. Have you ever seen a kid’s face light up when you wave some cookie-cutters at them and ask for help?
Yes! Take that Lego (I hate lego) and Ipads! I win!
Serve them hot, straight from the oven with a drizzle of double cream.
They taste great cold too – a nice lunchbox treat for your little ones or other half.
The Valentine’s Day Cherry Pies Recipe
Valentine's Day Cherry Pies
Ingredients
- 13 oz (375g) ready-rolled shortcrust pastry (pie crust)
- 1 egg slightly whisked
- ½ of a tin of cherry pie filling
- 3 tbsp demerara sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200c/400f
- Unroll the pastry and cut out heat shapes using a 10cm heart cutter. Re-roll and cut pastry until it’s all used up. You should get at least 14 hearts - to make 7 pies
- Place half of the hearts on a baking tray lined with baking parchment or a silicone mat.
- Use a pastry brush to brush egg wash onto the edges of the pie bottoms. Place a tablespoon of cherry pie filling in the centre of each heart.
- Place the other hearts on top (if you wish, you could cut a small heart out of the centre of a few of the tops).
- Use a fork or your fingers to seal the edges of the pies, then brush egg wash all over the top. Use a cocktail stick to make 2 or 3 holes in the pies (you only need to do this for the pies that haven’t got the little heart cut out).
- Sprinkle on the demerara sugar and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
- Serve warm with cream, or cool by themselves.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I had half a tin of cherry pie filling left and was wondering what to do with it. Perfect idea, I made mine in circles but gorgeous little dessert treat.
Nicky! These are just beautiful! I love how simple they are and how delicious! These would make the most adorable lunchbox addition for kids – no matter what their age 😉 Pinned!
Thanks Amy – as it happens my kids got these in their lunchbox a couple of times and there was not a crumb left 🙂