Maybe next time leave out the "villain". Thanks for the laugh! Sorry I can't help with a recipe.

Oh, I can't believe I did that! How Funny! I meant vanilla. Thanks for the response though.

Trish

Trish, I would think that you could use the North Star cherries in any recipe that calls for Montmorency cherries. Those are also intensely sour and here in Michigan they are known as "pie cherries".

This is nice in the summer, also light and very easy:

Cherry Sorbet

3 cups frozen pitted tart cherries
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup white wine or grape juice
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Place cherries in a food processor; cover and process until smooth. Add remaining ingredients; cover and pulse until blended. Pour into a freezer container. Cover and freeze until firm. Yield: 6 servings.

I use grape juice, but a really sweet moscato is OK in this too. And I've just scooped out frozen chunks and scraped them with a fork or put them back into the food processor for a quick "pulse" to chop the frozen stuff back up.

this is a good coffee cake recipe, too, although I don't use two cans of cherries, I just use 4 cups of sour cherries, either fresh and pitted or frozen/pitted. If I thaw the frozen cherries they have enough juice to make the filling and if I crush a cup of the fresh ones, I get enough juice for the filling.

I never sift, LOL, and I use butter instead of lard.

Coffee Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup lard
3/4 cup milk

FILLING:
1 cup sugar or sugar to taste
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cans (16 ounces each) pitted tart red cherries
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Few drops red food coloring, optional

TOPPING:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Place in a large bowl; work in lard. Add milk. Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan; set aside. For filling, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan. Drain cherries, reserving juice.

Set cherries aside and add juice to saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly; cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat; stir in extract, and food coloring if desired. Stir in cherries; cool slightly. Spread on dough.

For topping, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly; sprinkle over filling. Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes, or until bubbly and cake tests done.

Yield: about 20 servings.

OK, now, homemade Jiffy Mix. I got this recipe from King Arthur flour, it's "baking mix", which is the same thing as Jiffy Mix or Bisquick, basically.

King Arthur's Unbleached All-Purpose Baking Mix

First we'll explain how to make the equivalent of a large box (about 40 ounces) of baking mix, which can be stored on your pantry shelf. The trick here is to use a fat or shortening which is stable at room temperature. When you do, you have a combination that will keep for several months. After this we'll give you some ideas on how to customize this mix so it's completely your own. We start with the ingredients that make self-rising flour and go on from there.

9 cups (2 pounds, 6 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
5 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1 cup (6 1/2 ounces) vegetable shortening
Ways to Customize Your Baking Mix

��"You can substitute up to 50% King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour, Traditional or White Whole Wheat for the unbleached all-purpose flour. This will mean the mix should be stored in the freezer; otherwise whole wheat flour will go rancid.

��"Replace 1 cup of the unbleached all-purpose flour with 1 or more cups of the following: rye, buckwheat or oat flour; or 2 cups thick oat flakes, barley flakes or rye flakes. Store this mixture in the freezer as well.

��"For a heartier blend, substitute 1 or 2 cups of our 7-Grain Flour.

��"For even more nutrition, for each cup of flour, replace 2 tablespoons flour with 2 tablespoons wheat germ, wheat or other bran, and/or soy flour.

��"Eliminate the shortening and use an appropriate fat when you're putting your pancakes, muffins, etc. together.

Have fun and when you bake that coffee cake, invite me for coffee, I love cherries.

I also make sour cherry jam and cherry butter, if we have a really good cherry year here, and I made a sour red cherry and hot pepper jelly for Dishesdone, I remember. I think we named it "Cherry Bomb", LOL.

Annie

Annie,

You are absolutely wonderful!!! Thanks so much. Both the Cherry recipes look really yummy! I've printed the recipes and I will give them a try as soon as the first cherries are picked this year. I'll try the sorbet with the grape juice as you recommend, but it sounds like more fun to try to make a bunch of batches and try different wines to see which one is the best. Just kidding. ;~)

Also, thanks so much for the Jiffy/Bisquick recipe with all the additives to make it better! I will have fun trying the different ones out.

I know what you mean about the good cherry year. I got 20 pounds of cherries off our little tree and left a bunch for the birds.

The cherry/pepper jam sounds like fun. My husband loves to grow peppers, so all summer long we are giving them away. Our green pepper plants were almost trees this year.

Thanks again,
Trish

Trish, you are so welcome. I hate to waste any of those nice sour cherries!

Annie