But sometimes the tinned shop bought stuff rules. Most of my tinned essentials consist of chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, sweetcorn and tuna fish. So on the whole, not too bad really. You won’t catch me buying:

Tinned stewing steak - reminds me of dog food Tinned ham - with it’s slimy, jelly-like texture (blurgh) Baked beans with those little sausages in - do those sausages even contain meat?

Tinned cherry pie filling though. Let’s talk about that. I use it in a number of my sweet recipes, for example in my Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Brownies (2 deserts in one)! Mostly made up of a sweet, thick, starch-thickened sauce, you really have to dig around to find the actual cherries. This kind of thing would normally put me off, but no. I want to stick my hand in that tin - winnie-the-pooh-style - and dig around in there, scoff those cherries and lick off that ‘cherry’ sauce afterwards. It’s bad but it’s good. Very confusing. l’m not the only one with this problem. Empty a tin out in a bowl, use some of it for these cherry pies, leave the rest on the side for about 5 hours (because I haven’t got round to washing up yet), and I will find Chris with his hand in that bowl when he thinks no-one is looking (true story - happened 6 days ago). l didn’t judge. So yes, this Valentine’s Day Cherry Pies recipe uses tinned cherry pie filling and ready-made pastry. So I’m not sure it’s even actually a recipe. I did use egg wash and a sprinkling of demerara sugar too, so maybe I can get away with it?

Make these little hearts for your loved-one to put a smile on their face. Even better, make them with your kids. Have you ever seen a kid’s face light up when you wave some cookie-cutters at them and ask for help? Yes! Take that Lego (I hate lego) and Ipads! I win!

Serve them hot, straight from the oven with a drizzle of double cream. They taste great cold too - a nice lunchbox treat for your little ones or other half.

The Valentine’s Day Cherry Pies Recipe

Lemon Cream Cheese Puffs Raspberry and Almond Pithivers Almond Croissants Frangipane Mince Pies Caramel Mille Feuille Baked Churros Flaky Almond Croissant Twists

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