This dessert isn’t technically a pie. It’s a cross between a berry pie and a cobbler. It has pie filling, but there is no bottom crust. I put a simple filling – in this case, cranberry and cherry – into a deep dish and top with buttery, flaky puff pastry!

Ingredients

Because my recipe is so simple, you’ll only need basic pantry staples plus frozen cherries, frozen cranberries, an orange, and store-bought puff pastry.

When most people think of maraschino cherries, they think of the store-bought version [paid link] – dyed-red cherries that are super sweet from soaking in a sugar syrup. However, they can be easily made at home by steeping fresh cherries in either alcohol or juice.

My alcohol-free version is made by steeping pitted cherries in pomegranate juice and loads of spices. The cherries are tart, sweet, surprisingly complex, and incredibly inviting.

Turnovers are made by putting filling in the centers of dough squares and then folding the squares over themselves diagonally from corner to corner prior to baking baked. (If made with pie dough, turnovers and hand pies are virtually identical.)

These cherry cupcakes are the cupcake version of cherry cobbler. My cupcakes take the spirit of the cobbler, but they are moist and light and are a perfect handheld treat.

The Secret to Perfect Cherry Cupcakes

The secret to making these cupcakes work is adding the cherries partially through the bake. If you add the cherries at the beginning, they will sink to the bottom.

Black forest cupcakes are just like black forest cake, but in cupcake form. Black forest cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes soaked in cherry liqueur, with a cherry filling, a whipped cream topping, and cherries and chocolate on top.

According to What’s Cooking America, black forest cake was named in the late 16th century after the Black Forest Region in Germany (Der Schwarzwald in German) located in the state of Baden-Württemberg. In German, black forest cake is called Schwarzwälderkirschtorte.

What Is a Luxardo Cherry?

Today’s most popular maraschino cherries are typically made with high fructose corn syrup and red dye. Luxardo cherries are something else entirely.