And now for something completely different

I want to post occasionally on using liqueurs, not just wine and beer, in cooking, and in baking in particular since I like to bake (more so in the winter than this time of year).

I bought some very nice pie cherries at the farmers market Saturday morning.  After checking my options on Epicurious, I decided to make a cobbler.  This was a pretty standard cobbler recipe except that the dough was a little sweeter than I'm used to - calling for a half cup of sugar and some vanilla - and included corn meal with the white flour.

I hadn't pitted cherries in many a year, and remember why now.  It's a time-consuming, messy job, with juice going everywhere.  At least it washes out.  I have a pitter, but it's more suited to olives than the smaller red pie cherries.  It did the job though.

Besides the usual base of cherries, sugar, and corn starch, I decided to add some sliced almonds, about half a cup to 4 cups of cherries.  The recipe called for 6 cups of cherries, so I was a little short.  It also called for either amaretto or Frangelico.  Somehow I'm out of both; the amaretto would have gone well with the almonds.  If I'd had Frangelico on hand, I would have added filberts instead of almonds.

As a substitute, I added some Licor 43, which has a combination herbs and spices-vanilla flavor, and left out the vanilla from the cherry base.

To make a long blog short, the cobbler was good.  A little too much topping in proportion to the base, since I was short on the latter, but both were pretty tasty.  I took some over to my mom's, and she really liked it.  I'm not sure I could taste the Licor 43, but I'm sure it added to the great flavor.  I should add that the recipe also called for a small amount of allspice.  I wouldn't have thought of using allspice in a cherry dish, but it added a nice hint of spice.