• Cherry and blue cheese pies are rich little golden bites. Blue cheese is known for its creamy, melt-in-your-mouth texture, which is perfect with sweet and sharp cherries. Serve these unique little pies for brunch, tea, or whenever you’d like them!

    Cherry and blue cheese pies

    Serves: Makes 10 - 12
    Cooking Time: 1 hr 30 mins

    Ingredients

    • Pastry

    • 240g (2 cups) cake flour
    • 2,5ml (½ tsp) fine salt
    • 150g unsalted butter, room temperature
    • 60ml (¼ cup) milk
    • Filling

    • 225g (1 cup) fresh cherries, pitted
    • seeds from ¼ vanilla pod
    • 20ml (4 tsp) cherry jam
    • 30ml (2 tbsp) sugar + extra, for sprinkling
    • 50g blue cheese
    • 1 egg, beaten, for egg wash

    Instructions

    1

    For the pastry, sieve together the flour and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the milk and lightly knead the dough to form a ball. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rest for 1 hour.

    2

    For the filling, place the cherries, vanilla seeds, jam and 30ml (2 tbsp) sugar in a pan. Heat over medium heat until the jam has melted and the sugar has dissolved, 2 – 3 minutes. Pour the cherry mixture into a bowl and set aside to cool.

    3

    Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

    4

    Gently roll the pastry out to a thickness of 5mm. Cut into palm-size squares or stars. If using a star cookie cutter, the dough should yield 20 – 24 stars.

    5

    To assemble the pies, place a small amount of the cherry filling in the centre of the star, crumble some blue cheese onto the cherry filling and place a second star on top. Seal the edges by lightly pressing them together with a fork. Repeat the process with the rest of the pies.

    6

    Place the pies on the lined baking tray and brush the tops with egg wash. Lightly sprinkle a little sugar on top and place the pies in the oven.

    7

    Bake until golden on top, 10 – 15 minutes. Transfer the pies to a wire rack and set aside to cool.

    Notes

    Cook's tip: The pastry can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.