Dear Bakerella, I don't know how you do it! Part 1

Ever since I saw these, I wanted to try them.

Try I did.

These guys were not made from scratch.
I bought a pie crust mix and canned pie fillings.

(not sure why blogger takes it upon itself to rotate my pictures)

Pie Crust...hard stuff.
It's thick, it's fragile and really hard to roll thin and that is a very important part about pie pops.
(which I did not realize until later)

I bought cherry and apple pie filling.

I used a round cookie cutter for the apple to resemble an apple pie and a heart shaped cookie cutter for the cherry because I thought it would be fitting with the red filling and all.

It was difficult to get the pops to seal, probably because my pie crust was too thick.

I didn't know exactly how to bake them...on a cookie sheet with or without parchment paper?
I love parchment paper and so I decided it couldn't hurt.
Well, it did.

My first batch came out with slightly burned bottoms and burnt parchment paper.
Okay, no big deal...my family will still eat them.
Then I picked one up and the stick fell right out....one after another.

Alrighty then.
Mini pies it is.

The cherry pies went much smoother without the sticks and no parchment paper.

In the end, these little pies were very yummy and still very cute.

I will try again someday.
Stay tuned.

Crisp Cherry Cobbler

We have a beautiful cherry tree in our backyard...and last weekend, my boyfriend and I spent 30 minutes picking cherries of the lowest branches.

We picked a lot...but barely made a dent, so we will be picking more this weekend.

I actually don't care for fresh cherries but I LOVE cherry pie and cherry cobbler, so that was my plan for these cherries...but 4 gallon size bags of cherries would've made a whole lotta cobbler! So, I gave 3 bags to family and saved the last one for baking.

I found this recipe online and decided it sounded the yummiest and easiest.
I'm quite pregnant these days and didn't want something too involved because it's getting harder and harder to be on my feet for very long.

I made a couple changes to the recipe...using probably 5 cups of pitted cherries and all butter, no shortening.

The cherries were pretty easy to pit, I basically just smashed them open with my fingers and ripped out the seeds because they cherries didn't need to look pretty for the cobbler.

I mixed up the cherries with the sugar and flour...

Then mixed together the crisp topping and sprinkled chunks over the whole tray....

Then baked!

I am supposed to be staying away from sweets...but come on...I had to try it...twice.

Great recipe, I will definitely be making this again and again.