Sour cherry and magnolia cheesecake pie

I just made an experimental pie and it was such a winner I had to share.

Last year, the final crop in our old place from our Montmorancy sour cherry was huge. I cleaned and just froze several large batches. This past week one got pulled, thawed and cooked up.
Part was made into "pie filling". For this, I cook the cherries and juice, add in sugar, cornstarch, some Amaretto and splash of vanilla. Cooked to a thick sauce, it's the better version of the classic cherry pie filling.
In this case, I replaced some of the sugar with a chunk of the magnolia syrup I made this spring. It added a great boost to the cherry flavour and a wonderful extra depth and zing.

We had some cream cheese that needed to be used up so it was put in a bowl with vanilla, lemon zest, sugar and more of the magnolia syrup. Then I used a hand blender to get it smooth and added a bit of Birds custard powder, for thickener, then blended it again.

A deep dish pie plate was loaded with our fave egg/vinegar pie paste, then the cream cheese mixture and then an almost equal layer of the cherry filling. It got a top crust and then baked. ( 425 for 15 mins and then reduced to 350 for another 40 mins or so)

It was a bit messy due to how filled it was but the taste was incredible. Great warm, even better cold! It's like great cheesecake but doesn't have that overwhelming cheesiness you can get from actual cheesecake. I can't get over how well the magnolia flower flavour went with the sour cherry and cream cheese. I can't wait to try it with some other things and next year I'll be stripping the tree!

 I still have half the cherries from last years harvest,
sitting in my freezer.
Northstar and Meteor.
The cherry blossums are poppin. I'm looking for ways to get them used up before the new crop.

This sounds like a great plan.
I'm going to have to look up magnolia flower syrup.

I kept the syrup very simple. Just tons of cleaned blossoms, a pile of white sugar and a bit of water. Then heated on low and brought to a simmer so the sugar dissolved and then kept at that temp for maybe 5-10 mins then cooled. I've kept it in the fridge. I was hoping for more of candied product but the flowers also melted down and I got the syrup. It is quite heavily flavoured.
These were the flowers from the tree with the white Pom-Pom style flowers. I dried the larger petaled pink flowers. I found the white flowers more gingery than the pink. This was my first year with magnolias so everything was very experimental. ( next year pickling is also going to be tried)

I have two varieties of semi-sweet / tart cherries that were developed at the University of Saskatchewan - Carmine Jewel and Crimson Passion.  They have an incredible flavour and really keep their colour well no matter what we do with them.

I generally make tarts with them (don't have to fuss with a top crust) based on the recipe from an old Betty Crocker book, although I do cut back the sugar.  I also regularly make a vodka liqueur with them that everyone who has tried it has raved about.

Unfortunately, this year, with the timing of a road trip, they weren't quite ready to pick when we left and after we got back and went to the orchard, they were drying up, so we missed a year's harvest.  I don't know how many I have frozen to be able to make either of these recipes.  That makes me very sad.

Pie cherries are so delicious that I eat most of them right off the tree.  Fortunately, I also married an award winning pie maker.  She also makes crisp and cobbler.  I liked my pie cherry tree a lot for 7 years, then I biocharred it.  It doubled in size and the cherries themselves doubled in size and quality.   A neighbor also has a Montmorency pie cherry tree that I used to love, but with my new biocharred pie cherry tree, I can't seem to get excited about those cherries any more.  I also have a Surefire pie cherry tree that I like a lot as well.  I think I like the cherries just a little more, but the tree hasn't gotten as big yet.  

John S
PDX OR

Derek Thille wrote:after we got back and went to the orchard, they were drying up, so we missed a year's harvest.  I don't know how many I have frozen to be able to make either of these recipes.  That makes me very sad.

What a shame, missing a whole years harvest.

I think that I would have picked them and either finished drying them or froze them to get what I could out of them.

Anne Miller wrote:

Derek Thille wrote:after we got back and went to the orchard, they were drying up, so we missed a year's harvest.  I don't know how many I have frozen to be able to make either of these recipes.  That makes me very sad.

What a shame, missing a whole years harvest.

I think that I would have picked them and either finished drying them or froze them to get what I could out of them.

When I saw them after our trip, the ones remaining on the shrubs were shrivelled.  Usually the birds would take more of them, especially if we don't harvest in time, but it is what it is.