Duo of Cherry Danish with Freshly Milled Rouge de Bordeaux Flour

Summer in my house is the busiest season of celebration. Each of my children celebrates a summer birthday and every year part of the celebrating includes a trip to pick the bountiful harvest of the Pacific Northwest.

To celebrate my youngest’s 10th birthday, we piled into the car and drove east to Mosier to rolling farmland dotted with mature cherry trees. It was the first week of July and we were in the midst of the outrageous heat wave. Driving east to a hotter climate was a bit daunting but also a major motivator for the kids to work quickly.

Once we arrived, they positioned themselves up into the center branches to shade themselves from the sun while dropping the fruit ….kaplink, kaplunk...until the fluorescent pink bushels were full. Because of the heat, much of the fruit was already shriveled on the branches, but with persistence we felt around for the firmest, shiniest and ruby red cherries that we could find.

With kids very ready to leave the dry, hot fields, we gathered our buckets to bring to the scales. At the end of the row we came upon a single tree dripping with small yellow cherries, their skin softer and more tart than what we had already picked. We all fell in love with them, and decided the heat was worth dealing with while we filled two more buckets. We were told that the variety was “golden” and the tree acted as the pollinator for the other trees. I found them to be more like sour pie cherries — a coveted find for baking — and thought they’d make the perfect counterbalance to the sweet cherries.

As our Secret Item this weekend, we are making a duo of Cherry Danish using our Rouge de Bordeaux croissant dough, which will be spread with frangipane and filled with a fresh Cherry Compote made from our bounty. Something a little sweet, a little tart and very jammy.

We hope you enjoy!