Pâte brisée can be made by hand, but a food processor does the job well and easily. In the summer, it is a good idea to keep the flour in the freezer and the butter refrigerated until ready to use, since it is important to mix all the ingredients together quickly to keep the gluten from developing too much. The butter should remain visible in the dough, not blend into it. The slivers of butter will melt during the baking and give the dough some of the flakiness you find in puff pastry.
Making, rolling, and forming pie dough (05:25)
Making, rolling, and forming sweet dough (04:00)
All-butter puff pastry is available in many specialty markets. Traditional, fast, or store-bought puff pastry can be used interchangeably in any of my recipes.
Making and working with puff pastry (10:01)
A cherry pitter is the easiest way to pit cherries. If you don’t have one, hold each cherry between the thumb and forefinger of one hand so the hole from the stem shows. With the other hand, insert the tip of a small pointed knife into the hole until you feel the pit. Squeeze the cherry to soften the flesh and loosen the pit while simultaneously bringing the pit up through the hole with the point of the knife. After a bit of practice, you’ll be able to pit cherries quite quickly.
Many desserts in this book are served with a creamy topping: whipped cream, sour cream, or yogurt. You can substitute crème fraîche, commercial or homemade, for any of these toppings.
Crème fraîche is a thick natural cream with a butterfat content of at least 45 percent. You can make your own version by mixing a little yogurt with heavy cream; after a few hours at room temperature, the mixture will thicken into a reasonable facsimile of crème fraîche. You can also combine whipped heavy cream with an equal amount of sour cream.