Cherry puffs

Serves 4 

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
250g cherries, pitted and halved, fresh or frozen 
50g sugar 
½ tbsp cornflour 
1 lemon, juiced 
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract 
1 cinnamon stick 
75ml water, brandy, kirsch or cherry brandy 
15g butter 
2 sheets of ready rolled puff pastry 
1 egg yolk 
1 tbsp demerara sugar

Method
Make the filling by mixing the lemon juice and cornflour together in a small bowl. Get a pan big enough for your cherries.  Put the cherries, sugar, vanilla in and mix.  Add the water or alcohol and cornflour slurry and stir.  Put the cinnamon stick in put on a medium heat and cook until the sugar has melted and the juice is syrupy - this will be 5-10 mins.  You know when this is done because the liquid changes to from cloudy to clear and goes very sticky.  Turn off the heat, add the butter and leave to go completely cold. 

When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200c. 

Take 1 sheet of puff pastry out of your fridge and using your round pastry cutter, cut your circles out of the pastry.  You should get 12 in total but if you get more then feel free to cut more. Put the cut out pastry on to a lined baking tray and put into the fridge. 

Remove your next sheet of puff pastry and repeat, placing the cut out pastry on to a plate or board. 

Take the pastry on the baking tray out of the fridge and brush with the beaten egg. Place a heaped tablespoon of the filling on each round, leaving a 5mm space around the edge so you can seal the puffs. Once you have put the filling on to each pastry, get the remaining pastry out of the fridge and put lids on to your pastry, pressing on to the pastry with the filling, gently sealing round the edges.  Brush with egg wash all over the top of the puffs and sprinkle with the demerara sugar and put into the oven. 

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden and then serve the puffs hot.  They are good cold but even better straight from the oven, just watch your mouth as they burn.