Should I thaw cherries for a sour cream cherry pie?
I have a bag of frozen cherries and want to bake a pie with them, adding creme fraiche. I'll probably use a recipe intended for sour cream, as they are easier to find. But they tend to use fresh cherries, so they don't have recommendations on how to add frozen cherries.
What will happen if I add them from frozen? If I add them thawed? Which is likelier to taste better?
If it matters, I am planning this to be an open pie (no upper crust).
Best Answer
Thaw and drain them.
If you use fruit as a main ingredient like for a [your choice of fruit]pie, using frozen cherries will cause two things to happen:
- They will significantly increase your baking time, because you need extra oven heat to thaw them. This may cause your crust and cream mixture to dry out or overbake.
- They will exude a lot if liquid which can
- throw the filling-to-binder (eggs, starch) ratio, causing problems with the pie setting or the filling falling apart and
- cause soggy spots both in the cream filling and the crust. And mushy crust in a pie is pretty yuck.
Note that there are cases where using frozen fruit is fine, but that's typically recipes like blueberry muffins, where you add just a comparatively small amount mixed into a batter and local slightly damper spots aren't much of a problem.
Pictures about "Should I thaw cherries for a sour cream cherry pie?"
How do you thaw cherries for pie?
There's no need to drain off the juices or add extra starch\u2014simply thaw to about 50\xb0F (10\xb0C), and prepare the pie filling as directed. The frozen fruit will deflate and release its water content as it thaws, so it will seem juicier.Can you thaw frozen cherries?
Frozen fruit in the package can be thawed in the refrigerator, under running water, or in a microwave oven if thawed immediately before use. Turn the package several times for more even thawing.Can I use frozen cherries instead of fresh?
Frozen cherries can be substituted for fresh cherries in most recipes. If you are substituting canned cherries for fresh, you may need to drain or rinse off the syrup before proceeding.Can cherries be cooked from frozen?
As far as the fruit goes, you can bake frozen cherries into pies, turn them into quick and easy sorbets, and even cook them into chili.Russian Sour Cream Cherry Pie Recipe | Best Cherry Custard Pie
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Jasmine lew, Trang Doan, Tim Douglas, Maria Tyutina