It’s time for another edition of Maria’s Kitchen!

Today we join my host mother as she shows Champa how to prepare sour cherry pastries for a birthday party. The cherries come from the family garden, which has also been abundant with sweet cherries, peaches, apricots, strawberries, raspberries, apples and pears, as well as a rich variety of vegetables.

This recipe is simple and delicious, with a taste more sweetly tart than sour. Here are the steps:

Roll out a pastry dough on a surface covered with flour. Your own favorite crust recipe will work fine for this.

Cut the dough into long triangles and place a dab of sour cherry filling on each triangle. The filling is just sour cherries and sugar, to taste, heated in water.

Roll up each triangle from the long side towards the opposite point. Place them on a metal tray and bake for 30-40 minutes at medium heat.

Remove the pastries from the oven and let them cool. Then roll them in powdered sugar.

Eat and enjoy, like Maria’s granddaughter shown here. (She is also named Maria, as are many of the women in Moldova.)

You can search on this blog to find some of Maria’s other specialties. If you’re interested in learning more about Moldovan cuisine, check out this excellent blog produced by two previous Peace Corps volunteers, as I’ve noted previously.

Trust me, these pastries are yummy. If you’re picking cherries or berries this summer, give Maria’s recipe a try and then post a comment about how your pastries turned out!