Imagine a sweet cherry pie filling on top of a cheesecake, but instead of a graham crust it’s baked inside of a puffy cushion of supple yeast dough. That is a black cherry cheesecake kolache!

I know I just posted a breakfast stuffed version not too long ago but it seems I cannot help but come up with new kolache varieties to share with you. So far they have all been savory but in light of it being #SummerDessertWeek it was time to turn to the sweet side.  With a big bag of black cherries that happened to be on sale (hooray seasonal summer fruit) I went to work.

Strangely, despite the fact that kolaches are often filled with sweet cream cheese and my obsession with all creations involving cream cheese, I originally didn’t plan on adding a cream cheese filling to these kolaches. Thankfully I realized how silly this was and halfway through the recipe whipped some up (because I always have cream cheese in stock). The end result tastes like a black cherry cheesecake stuffed inside the best damn dough ever.

As for the rest of my fellow #SummerDessertWeek bloggers, make sure you check out their recipe contributions today listed below the following photo. Some more will continue on tomorrow but then that’s it! Which means time is running out to enter the giveaway if you have not already done so. Just find the widget located at the end of this post. Good luck!

I used Red Star Yeast, Dixie Crystals pure cane sugar, Adams Extract twice as strong vanilla and imitation strawberry, and a Susquehanna Glass Co. “drop anchor” etched cutting board in this post.

Check out the amazing #SummerDessertWeek recipes from our bloggers today!

Sweet Summertime Cakes:

• White Chocolate Espresso Cake with Caramel Espresso Buttercream from The Food Hunter’s Guide To Cuisine
• Bee Sting Cake from Kudos Kitchen by Renee
• Coffee Cake from A Blender Mom
• Tropical Summer Cake from Daily Dish Recipes

No-Bake Treats:

• Banana Pudding No Bake Cheesecake from The Bitter Side of Sweet
• Strawberry Cloud Dessert from Shockingly Delicious

Baked Desserts:

• Homemade Blueberry Cream Cheese Danishes from Big Bear’s Wife
• Black Cherry Kolaches from The Spiffy Cookie
• Blackberry Bread Pudding from Eat Move Make
• White Cake with Vanilla Cherry Buttercream Icing from The Beard and The Baker
• Lemon Poppyseed Scones from Mildly Meandering
• Cherry Sweet Rolls from Comfortably Domestic

Sweet Sips:

• Watermelon Slushies from The Domestic Kitchen

Two years ago: Mexican Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Four years ago: Blackberry Basil Sparkler

Six years ago: Banana Ice Cream Nutella Sandwiches

BLACK CHERRY CHEESECAKE KOLACHES

Makes 15

Ingredients:

DOUGH

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup Dixie Crystals pure cane sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1-1/4 cups scalded milk

2 egg yolks, beaten

1/4 tsp Adams Extract twice as strong vanilla

1 (1/4 oz.) pkg. Red Star active dry yeast

3 cups all-purpose flour

Melted butter, for brushing

CHERRY FILLING

2 cups fresh black cherries, pitted and chopped

1/4 cup Dixie Crystals pure cane sugar

1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/8 tsp Adams Extract imitation cherry (or vanilla)

CREAM CHEESE FILLING

4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

2 Tbsp Dixie Crystals pure cane sugar

1 large egg yolk

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar together. Stir in salt, hot milk, beaten egg yolks, and vanilla extract. When lukewarm, add yeast to mixture. Let stand 5 minutes or until foamy. Add flour, beating well. Knead down into bowl. The dough will be slightly sticky. Cover with a damp towel and let rise 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile in a medium pot add all the cherry filling ingredients and stir to coat. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until glossy and thickened, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. In a medium bowl add all the cream cheese filling ingredients. Beat until fully incorporated and smooth. Set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a 10×15-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Divide dough into 15 pieces and roll into rounds in your hands. Place on baking sheet 1-inch apart and let rise 15 minutes.
6. Make a depression into the center of each roll and fill with a heaping teaspoon of the cream cheese and cherry filling. Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating halfway through, or until browned. Remove from oven, brush immediately with butter, and cool on wire racks.

Source: Adapted from my Caramelized Apple & Onion Kolaches.

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Homemade BBQ sauce is a must make this summer, especially when it involves fresh sweet cherries and root beer! Slather it on ribs or your favorite grilled meats.

Well, Argentina laid into the USA soccer team last night. While the outcome was not surprising, I had hoped it would’ve at least been a good game. Alas, it was not the case. Thankfully prior to such destruction I had a most enjoyable time with friends, testing out Lineage’s new rhubarb beer made from local rhubarb. I love that we are able to walk to such places from our neighborhood, especially with weather as beautiful as it was last night. Then on the walk back home the lightning bugs were working overtime as they looked like twinkling Christmas lights in all the trees along the river trail.

As I’ve mentioned before, with all this wonderful weather I’ve been making sure to make use of the grill as much as possible. That patriotic dessert I shared on Monday? It was not the only thing to appear on the menu this past weekend. I also whipped up a homemade BBQ sauce that has sweet cherries and root beer in it – heck yea! I then slathered it on ribs and plan to put it on pretty much everything from now until the end of time (or until I run out). This recipe certainly makes plenty of BBQ sauce to use for many other purposes.

One year ago: Sweet Orange Risotto with Strawberries

Five years ago: Roasted Potato Salad

CHERRY-ROOT BEER BBQ RIBS

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

BBQ SAUCE

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups dark sweet cherries, pitted

12 oz. tomato paste

1 cup cider vinegar

1 cup honey

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 cup Dijon mustard

1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce

1 cup root beer

2 Tbsp chili powder

1-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

RIBS

5 lbs. Baby Back or St. Louis ribs

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Directions:

1. For the sauce, heat the oil in a large saucepan over low heat, add the onions, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes until the onions are translucent but not browned.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.  Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, or until cherries are tender and sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a blender or use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. Use the sauce immediately or pour into a container and refrigerate.
2. For the ribs, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a large sheet pan with aluminum foil.
3. Place the ribs on the sheet pan meat side up and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.  Pour a generous amount of the BBQ sauce on each rack and cover the ribs loosely with aluminum foil.  Bake for 1-1/2 hours for baby backs and 1-3/4 hours for St. Louis ribs, or until the meat is very tender when tested with a fork.  As soon as the ribs are out of the oven, spread them generously with additional BBQ sauce.  Grill right away or refrigerate to grill later.
4. Heat a gas grill to medium-high heat.  Brush the coking grate with oil to keep the ribs from sticking.  Place the ribs on the grill ribs-side-down, put the lid on top (be sure both vents are open), and grill for 5 minutes. Turn the ribs meat-side-down, put the lid back on, and grill for another 4-5 minutes, until nicely browned.  Place on a cutting board, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and allow the ribs to rest for 10 minutes.  Cut into ribs and serve hot with extra BBQ sauce on the side.

Source: Adapted slightly from Ina Garten’s Foolproof Ribs with BBQ Sauce.

If you thought fruit crisp topped with ice cream was good, try mixing it all together. Sweet and crunchy black cherry-peach crisp layered throughout vanilla ice cream.

The affliction of living with a food blogger is waiting to devour the food until all the photos have been taken at all possible angles. Waiting to be given the go-ahead to eat that gorgeous plate/bowl of food is just as torturous for you as it is for us, I promise. But how do you know for sure when the photo shoot has been completed, particularly for multi-step recipes such as ice cream? Without asking it’s a risky business.

Yes, this ice cream was dug into before I was finished (photo evidence above). It’s my fault for not stressing this fact to my parents but I was still upset to find a large chunk already scooped out, especially when it was not even completely set yet. Normally I don’t bother with pictures of ice cream in the container but I purposely used a loaf pan this time to get all stupid-food blogger on you by putting ice cream in a baking pan and then taking aerial shots of it being scooped out. Like those first steps in pristine just-fallen white snow. I’ll just have to make more ice cream soon – darn.

Thankfully the flavor of the ice cream did not suffer from it’s premature scooping. My parents’ inability to wait just shows how much they could not wait to try it. It starts out simple enough with a vanilla base which is then layered with bits of black-cherry peach crisp (notice those beautiful chunks of crisp topping in the post-churn/pre-freeze photo above). I baked a crisp just to turn it into ice cream. Which means this ice cream tastes just like a black cherry-peach crisp a la mode. Cannot really blame my parents, can I?

One year ago: Greek Yogurt Everything Bagels

Three years ago: Cosmic Brownies

BLACK CHERRY-PEACH CRISP ICE CREAM

Makes approximately 1 quart

Ingredients:

CRISP

2 cups fresh black cherries, pitted and quartered

1 peach, pitted and diced

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

ICE CREAM BASE

5 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk (I used 2%)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. To make the crisp: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat a 1 quart baking dish with nonstick spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, toss the fruit with the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Pour into prepared baking dish.
3. Reusing the same bowl, combine the oats, flour, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over fruit.
4. Bake, uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until filling is bubbly and top is golden brown. Let cool completely.
5. To make the ice cream base: Whisk the yolks and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Set aside.
6. In a medium saucepan, stir together the cream, milk, salt, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Heat the mixture over medium-high heat, stirring often, until it just comes to a simmer; reduce heat to medium.
7. Add about 1/2 cup of the mixture (I used a ladle) to the eggs while whisking constantly. Repeat with another 1/2 cup of the cream mixture.
8. Using a heatproof spatula, stir the cream in the saucepan constantly as you pour the egg-and-cream mixture back into the pan. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until thickened and coats the back of the spatula, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat.
9. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl and whisk in the vanilla extract. Set the bowl in an ice bath and stir the base occasionally until it’s cooled to room temperature. Remove the bowl from the ice bath, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
10. Churn the ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Layer the ice cream and crisp in a freezer-safe container, repeating layers until you run out. Freeze for at least 3 to 4 hours.

Source: Adapted from Roasted Balsamic Strawberry Ice Cream and Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.

I decided to stick to the name “cookie-wiches” for this creation because they ended up not quite looking like whoopie pies. Shun me if you dare, but these cake-like cookies were just begging to be sandwiched around some fluffy goodness. And there is even 0% Black Cherry Chobani Greek yogurt in there instead of cream cheese. Excuse me while I shake up some other baking ideologies.

Only a few more days to enter the Chobani giveaway! Find out how to enter HERE.

One year ago: Caprese Salad Grilled Cheese Sandwich

DARK CHOCOLATE BLACK CHERRY OATMEAL COOKIE-WICHES

Makes about 18 cookie-wiches

Ingredients:

COOKIES

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup 0% Black Cherry Chobani Greek yogurt

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 cups quick-cooking oats

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened dried cherries, chopped

1 cup dark chocolate chunks (or chips)

FILLING

4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup 0% Black Cherry Chobani Greek yogurt, strained through a cheesecloth overnight

3 cups powdered sugar, divided

1/2 cup flour, divided

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugars (by hand or with electric mixer) until creamy.  Add the eggs, yogurt, and vanilla extract; mix until smooth.  Add the baking powder, cinnamon, oats, and flour; stir until just mixed.  Stir in the chopped cherries and chocolate. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line two to three large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
3. Drop the cookie dough by rounded tablespoon onto the cookie sheets, about two inches apart.  Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.  Allow the cookies to cool 5 minutes before removing from the cookie sheets to cool completely.
4. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, cream the softened butter with the yogurt. Add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, 1/4 cup of the flour, vanilla and salt; mix on low speed until blended. Add remaining powdered sugar and flour if necessary, then beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
5. Spread the filling onto the flat side of half the cookies. Top each with remaining cookies.

Source: Cookies adapted from Little Bitty Bakes. Filling adapted heavily from Fake Ginger.

Disclosure: I was sent six 16 oz. tubs of blended Chobani Greek yogurt. I was not compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Who says smoothies can’t taste good while also being good for you? Heck this black cherry vanilla almond smoothie almost taste like dessert but it packed with protein.

This content contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate and Nuzest Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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This post may be from 2011, but it is still one of my favorite smoothies to make. The black cherries are perfectly sweet and the almond matches up so well. Sometimes I pump up the almond a bit and use almond milk instead of regular milk.

It almost tastes like dessert! And I am not opposed to starting my day with a big glass of this. But these days I almost always add a boost of protein.

While there is protein in the milk and yogurt, I add more with the addition of my favorite vegan vanilla protein powder. As an added bonus I get more vanilla flavor too!

I have tried so many different single packets of protein powders, buying every single one I came across, trying to find one that has the nutrients I am looking for that still tastes good and isn’t grainy – and I finally found one by Nuzest! And to spread the love I am giving you 15% your order with my code THESPIFFYCOOKIE. 

But if you are skeptical and want to try a sample before committing to an order (which I totally understand, as I’ve clearly been there), you can get a single packet of the vanilla protein powder for $1.99 and free shipping by clicking HERE.

The picture below is from when I first share this post. I loved these crazy straws growing up. Although not the widest to allow for smoothie passage, it’s still fun to look at, but I do not recommend them for this occasion. 

Post updated 8/23/20, photo above is the original.

BLACK CHERRY VANILLA ALMOND SMOOTHIE

Print

Yield: 1 serving

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

• 1 cup frozen pitted black cherries
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/4 cup low-fat vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, optional
• 1 Tbsp sliced almonds
• 3/4 cup milk or almond milk

Directions

1. Place ingredients into a blender (or single cup adapter). Cover and pulse until well combined.
2. Pour into a glass and enjoy!!

Did you make this recipe? I want to see!
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