Star Spangled Cherry Pockets

• Pastry Dough
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2-3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
• 3 tablespoons chilled lard (We prefer lard to hydrogenated shortenings, but shortening will work fine)
• 1/2 - 3/4 cups ice water (all depending)
• Luscious Cherry Filling
• about 1/2 cups dried sour cherries
• about 3 cups sour cherry juice
• 1 jar of pitted sour cherries, drained (about 16 oz.)
• about 1/4 cups sugar (We like our pies with a nice tang, especially because of the glaze. If your teeth are sweeter, add as much sugar as you see fit.)
• 1 pinch salt
• a few gratings of fresh lemon zest
• 4 ounces cream cheese (Neufchatel is great too!)
• 1- 1 1/2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar (more as you wish)
• a spot of pure vanilla
• a splashes cream (more if necessary)

1. Make the pastry dough: rnrnIn the bowl of a food processor, pulse the dry ingredients together, then add the cold butter and lard. Give 7-9 quick pulses, or until the fats are just bigger than peas. rnrnTurn on the processor and add the water in a stream down the feed tube while the machine runs, just until the dough has started to collect together in a mass around the blade.rn rnTurn the dough out onto your work surface, and use the heels of your hand to smear the dough out all over (about five or six strokes are perfect); the goal is to create flaky little layers of butter in the dough, while keeping it as cold as possible- this is called a fraisage. rnrnGather the dough and form into a disk. rnrnChill for at least one hour. rnrn(This can also be done by hand, rustic style: cutting the fats into the dry ingredients with your fingers or a pastry blender, then adding the ice water and proceeding as usual).
2. Make the filling:rnrnMix the dried cherries with the juice, zest, sugar and salt in a saucepan. rnrnBring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium/ medium-low, and continue to simmer until the cherries have plumped beautifully, and the mixture is reduced by about half. rnrnAdd the drained cherries. Using an immersion blender, or taking about 1/3 of the mixture out and putting in the food processor, lightly puree some of the cherry mixture. The idea is to get some of the cherries broken down to thicken and hold the filling together, while leaving a nice textural element to the filling. Just eye it and call it a day. rnrnContinue to cook the filling until it has reduced down to a lovely thick jammy compote. rnrnCool the mixture completely (if it is only very slightly warm, you can get away with it, but you just don't want to melt the crust).
3. Assemble the pies!rnrnDivide the chilled dough in two, and roll out each half. This is a matter of preference, we like a thinner crust, about 1/8" thick. Cut out rectangles (or other simple shapes) by hand, or with a toaster pastry stamper (ours measures approximately 3 1/2" x 4 1/2". Be sure to cut out an even number of shapes, so they can be paired together. rnrnIf you have leftover dough scraps, you can cut out little shapes (stars, hearts etc.) to decorate the pies with, or to brush with melted butter or an egg wash, and then sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar and nibble on with a cup of tea.rnrnLay the pastry shapes onto parchment lined baking sheets. Brush the edges of the rectangles with an egg wash (whisk an egg with a spot of cream or milk) and spoon on the filling; keep the filling within the border of the egg wash (about 1/2'' from the sides), mounding it some in the center. rnrnLay a pastry piece atop a piece with filling, pressing lightly around the edges to seal. Use a table fork to gently tamp down the edges all around the pastries. This will help seal them, and also leave cute crimp marks. rnrnBrush the sealed pastries with egg wash. Decorate with dough shapes if you're feeling artsy. *Note, if you are skipping the cream cheese glaze, I would give the pies a nice sparkly sprinkle of sugar (turbinado or regular).
4. Refrigerate the pies for about 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
5. Bake the pies for five minutes. Then turn down the oven to 375 degrees and continue baking for about another 20 minutes, or until the pies are golden brown all over. Some cherry filling may have seeped out in a couple of places, which should luxuriously bubble about around the edges and contribute beautifully to the appeal.
6. Cool the pies some before adding the glaze. They are sublime warm with the glaze, which will start to melt into a translucent creaminess (if you were- or still are- a Toaster Strudel lover, you will be in dreamland). They are also fabulous served tepid (picnic style!!!) with the glaze. The decision is yours, though you'll probably want to sample one in each way just to make sure. . .
7. Make the cream cheese glaze:rnrnStir together the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and cream until well incorporated. The mixture should have the texture of a soft icing. rnrnAdorn the pastries with the glaze at your pleasure: you may wish to spread it all over, drizzle it with the tines of a fork, or use a pastry bag (or a plastic bag with the corner snipped), and go for it. rnrnThe glaze will set up, which allows for perfect packing into picnic baskets or lunch boxes. I have found that the glaze holds fine at room temperature. rnrnThe pies, glazed or not, will keep for 2-4 days well-wrapped at room temperature, but they freeze beautifully. Just wrap the pies, put them in a sealed plastic bag before setting them in the freezer. Bring them back to life in a 375 degree oven until warm and crisp again.
8. Enjoy!!!!!

pastry dough, flour, sugar, kosher salt, unsalted butter, chilled lard, water, filling, sour cherries, sour cherry juice, sour cherries, sugar, salt, lemon zest, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, cream

Taken from food52.com/recipes/12742-star-spangled-cherry-pockets (may not work)