Mother's Day Dessert: Pear and Cherry "Pocket Pies"

For family gatherings, I always like to bring dessert.  This Mother's Day, I was planning to make a fruit pie, but, while I was flipping through channels Saturday afternoon, I came across Dessert First on Food Network.  On that particular episode, the host was making "pocket pies" with almond, cherry and pear filling.  I've worked with puff pastry before, and I decided it would be a good treat.

Being a lazy pants, I didn't measure the pastry as carefully as Anne did, so, at first, I ended up with seven pocket pies for eight people.  Oops.  So, one got cut into two.  They ended up being so huge that everyone ended up having half of one.  I also added a little water to the egg wash, and upped the amount of cherries in the filling, since I was serving it to some cherry fans.

My mother has requested a pear and blueberry pocket pie when she's in the area next, so keep an eye out for it!

Puff pastry is actually quite easy to work with - look for it in your freezer section.  Whole Foods carries a brand without a lot of additives  - it's just butter and unbleached flour.  Keep it frozen until you want to use it, and you can either defrost it in the fridge or on your counter.  The counter was my preferred location, as I am impatient.

You can also use this for savory dishes - I bet it would be particularly good with tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach and feta.  It's not vegan, given how loaded down it is with butter, but vegetarians can enjoy it.