Saturday Smoothies: Cherry Pie Chill

My Excellent Tasters Approve

My apologies for missing the last two Saturday Smoothie recipes. Tim and I were at our summer study group meeting at Mt. Shasta in northern California. Camping. No smoothies there. So, to catchup a little, I’m offering a pretty different smoothie recipe that the girls and I invented this Wednesday.

I set out to invent a smoothie that tasted (sorta) like a cherry pie. It sorta does.

For this smoothie, I had some excellent help from my professional kid-tasters, Ema and Adia.

girls tasting smoothie
My excellent tasters, also wearing the t-shirts they just decorated with sharpies and alcohol. (post with how-to-make-the-shirts coming up soon)

Here are the results of our inventiveness:

Cherry Pie Chill

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 ice cubes
  • 1/2 frozen banana
  • 1 cup pure black cherry juice, unsweetened
  • a teense* of almond extract (careful, a little of this extract goes a long way!)
  • a splinch* of vanilla (halfway between a splash and a tinch (very different from a teense)
  • 1/2 cup cream (or if you are non-dairy, use coconut cream)
  • 1/2 cup frozen pie cherries (the tart kind)
  • 2 whole graham crackers
  • 1 extra graham cracker, crumbled, for garnish

PREPARATION

Add everything to a blender and pulse until blended. Continue blending on high until it’s nice and smooth. Garnish with additional graham cracker crumbs

NOTES:

* these amounts are adjustable. Start with less and add more according to your own taste. Make up your own words for the amount you end up using. 🙂 Be careful with the almond extract — it’s potent and can overwhelm all the other flavors if you accidentally put too much.

* The half and half or coconut cream is in this smoothie to substitute for the “buttery” flavor you’d get in a cherry pie crust. Coconut cream gives the smoothie a bit more mouth-feel than half and half. We used both and the girls liked the half and half better. You could get really decadent and make this a milkshake instead of a smoothie — by adding vanilla ice cream instead of the half and half or coconut milk… It would be much sweeter, though. 😉

* The graham crackers add a subtle flavor that fills in for “pie crust.” If you are avoiding flour or gluten, skip the graham crackers.

girl drinking cherry pie smoothie
Ema goofing over the incredibly taste of the Cherry Pie Chill