You know those people who are content grabbing bowls of oatmeal or eating bottomless boxes of cereal for dinner every night? These are the people who don’t rock the boat. They are mellow, laid back go with the flow-ers and they are the most difficult people to prepare a meal for or purchase a present for. Why is that, you ask? Because every conversation goes like this: “What would you like for dinner?” “I don’t know.” “What about steak?” “Yeah that’s fine.” “Or chicken?” “Sure.” “What about spaghetti?” “Yeah, I guess.” “GIMME AN ANSWER OLD MAN!”

I grew up with such a person in my life. In fact (Josh is making me write this) I inherited this little trait from him, which is probably more annoying for Josh since I am the cook. It’s not that I don’t like any suggestions, I simply just don’t know what I want. I feel confident that my father feels the same. This is why he gets so many pairs of socks for his birthday – it’s all he gives us to work with. So, with Father’s Day around the corner, I prepared for the semi-annual difficult task of figuring out what the heck to get him.

Luckily, there are a few fall backs on which to…..fall back on…..after hours of brain racking with zippo ideas. One of those fall backs is cherries. Whether they be whole, baked, buckled, cobbled, thrown into a pie, or on top of a sundae, few things have the power of evoking a definite “yes” like cherries do. When I  came across big bright red cherries in my new favorite edgy underground flagship Whole Foods, I knew I hit the jackpot for Father’s Day.

After mercilessly ripping out the hearts of the the cherries, I decided upon a combination of amaretto (can I get an amen?) and almond to punch up their flavors and balance out their sweetness. The pie were sweet and boozy and were wrapped in a decidedly delicate but flaky sour cream crust.  My special dudes gave them thumbs up, which made my day, since one of my dudes happens to be hard to “shop” for.

Cherry Amaretto Hand Pies

Makes about 2 dozen hand pies

Crust:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup ice water
Filling:
4 cups pitted sweet cherries, about 2 pounds unpitted
1/2 – 3/4 cup sugar, depending on how sweet your cherries are
4 tablespoons corn starch
1 tablespoon amaretto
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
Coarse sanding sugar, optional

Crust: In a large bowl combine flour, salt and sugar and give it a quick stir. Add butter and using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until butter is the size of small peas. Add sour cream to four mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or fork and work into dough. Most of the dough will not combine, but try to mix the sour cream through as much of the dough as possible. Then take your cold water and pour it in a little at a time until your dough comes together. It shouldn’t be overly sticky or wet. Knead dough a few times inside the bowl to get up any of the powdery bits that might remain. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Filling: Cut cherries up into small pieces, or quarters and place in a large bowl. (You can skip this step if you want, but you can get more cherry filling inside the pie if you cut them up smaller. Leaving them whole will, or at least for me did cause problems when folding the dough over to create the pie. Even with just one or two cherries the dough got stretched and it was hard to seal or they popped right through the dough. Keeping the pieces small helped them seal better while still being packed.) Add sugar, cornstarch, amaretto and almond extract and stir to combine. Set aside.

Assemble: Remove dough from refrigerator and divide into four equal pieces. Work with one piece at a time, leaving the rest of the dough in the refrigerator until ready to roll out. Roll each section out until 1/8-inch thick. Using a 4 to 5-inch round cutter, cut out circles and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. I got about 6 circles from each dough section. Spoon a tablespoon or so of filling onto one half of each circle. Brush a little cold water around the circumference of each circle and fold the dough over in half creating a semi-circle. Using the tines of a fork, crimp the edges together to seal the pies shut. Place pies back on the baking sheet and put back in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Remove pies from refrigerator. In a small bowl whisk together egg yolk and water and brush over each pie. Take a pairing knife and poke a vent hole on the top of each pie and sprinkle with sanding sugar, or regular sugar. Place pies in oven to bake and bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving.