Tart cherry and creamy ricotta filling

Laminated dough recipe used to make croissants. To speed up the process, use store-bought puff pastry and load with sour cherry and ricotta filling.

INGREDIENTS

Dough

1/4 cup (60g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
4 cups (500g) flour, plus more for rolling/shaping
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp active dry or instant yeast
1 1/2 cups (360ml) cold whole milk

Butter Layer

1 1/2 cups (345g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 Tablespoons (16g) all-purpose flour

Egg Wash

1 large egg
2 Tablespoons (30ml) whole milk

Ricotta Filling

3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp grated lemon zest

Sour Cherry Filling

2 cups sour cherries pitted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp all-purpose flour

Recommend reading https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-croissants/ before beginning, especially if you are new to laminated pastry.

Dough Prep: In a large bowl, add sugar, yeast, flour, and butter (cut into squares), mix gently for a minute. Add salt (want to avoid salt being directly mixed with yeast, or it will kill the yeast), and slowly add milk while mixing. Once combined, knead the dough in the bowl for at east 5 minutes, it should bounce back when poked, and shouldn’t be too sticky that it can’t pull away from the bowl. Roll or pat dough out on a clean floured surface, cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 mins. After it has cooled, bring back out and roll it to a 14x10” rectangle. Tip: to get square corners from a round dough, cut a + across the ball of dough, about half way through the depth of the circle, then peel back the quadrants into a square, then roll out the dough into the rectangle. Cover the rectangle with plastic wrap, and place in fridge for 4 hours or unto 24 hours.

Butter Layer: While dough is in the fridge, prepare the butter layer, by beating ingredients until smooth. Spread the butter onto a plastic wrap, in a 7x10” rectangle. Place in fridge for at least 30 mins, it should be firm but not crumbly for laminating.

Dough Lamination: Place dough rectangle on floured counter, and butter rectangle in the middle, wrap in dough, and seal by pinching edges. Roll the cold dough gently to a 10x20” rectangle, avoid butter breaking through dough. Fold the dough lengthwise into thirds as if you were folding a letter. This was the 1st turn. Place in fridge for 30 minutes to cool dough again. Remove from fridge, turn the dough so the short end is facing you. Roll the dough out once again into a 10×20-inch rectangle, then fold the dough lengthwise into thirds as if you were folding a letter. The dough must be refrigerated between the 2nd and 3rd turn because it has been worked with a lot by this point. Place the folded dough on the baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before the 3rd turn. Roll the dough out once again into a 10×20-inch rectangle. Fold the dough lengthwise into thirds as if you were folding a letter. Place the folded dough on the lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough out into an 8×20-inch rectangle. Cut into small rectangles 4x5”. For croissants: cut the rectangles diagonally into triangles. Here, you can roll into croissants by cutting a slit at the wide end, and rolling (roll tightly, tuck tip underneath, and bend ends slightly in to make the crescent shape when placed on the pan). Or, leave as rectangles and fill with cherry filling for turnovers.

Sour Cherry and Ricotta Filling: In saucepan, bring cherries, sugar and 3 tbsp of the water to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Whisk flour with remaining 1 tbsp water; whisk into cherry mixture and cook until thickened to consistency of jam, about 1 minute. Let cool completely, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, combine ricotta, icing sugar and lemon zest; set aside.

Fill Turnovers: Divide ricotta filling onto half of each square, mounding filling. Top with sour cherry filling. Brush pastry edges with water; fold 1 corner over filling to make triangle. With tines of fork, press edges to seal; pierce top of each 3 times for vents. Transfer to parchment paper–lined baking sheets. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Whisk egg with 1 tsp water; brush over turnovers. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, in 425ºF (220ºC) oven until puffed and golden, about 15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.