ground cherries

Last year, my co-worker, Annie, introduced me to ground cherries. Ground cherries are these fun little fruits that come in husks, like mini tomatillos. Only they don't taste like tomatillos. I'd say the flavor is an interesting combination of pineapple, cherry candy, and sweet cherry tomatoes. They're fun to snack on, if only because you get to pop the fruit out of husk!

Last year I ate a handful of ground cherries. This year, Sam bought a bag of them at the farmer's market. Today, I made ground cherry mini pies. I have never been good at making pies, so why I chose this method to use up the fruit, I do not know, but they seem to have turned out okay.

The funny thing was, that as the little pies cooked, the cherries never altered form. I thought for sure they would wrinkle and cook down. I probably baked them too long because I was watching and waiting for this to happen. As soon as I took them out of the oven, though, they puckered up. My overflowing mini pies sunk, the little mitten cutouts I put on top to be decorative ended up falling in. Oh well, as long as they taste good, right?