I’ll admit it, at first it was the packaging that attracted me to these beauties. Those nubby pint containers, the aqua blue cardboard was complementing the crimson of the cherries so poetically. Really, there could have been slop for sale in those pint containers and I would have had to stop and comment, “Look, the rough-hewn finish of those beautiful cardboard containers so matches the bumpy nature of the slop it contains.” But you have been mostly saved from those ridiculous musings, because instead of slop, there were juicy sour cherries.

Maybe it’s the growing climate, but in California, a place where I spent the bulk of my life (okay, I’ll be honest here, 27 out of 28 years of my existence) the sour cherry is somewhat of a rarity. But at the Union Square Greenmarket, which has been stupendous as of late, they have been absolutely lousy with sour cherries. Vendors selling them loose by the pound, stacked high among the Ranier and Bing style cherries, vendors selling them in the pint, and quart containers in a stunning array of muted ocean hues. I had my pick.

I tasted the sweet-tart fruit, and bought my pint, thinking about what I would make with my cherries on the subway ride home. A bit too sour to be eaten out of hand, yet soft, and bursting with juice, it took me moment– and then I knew.

Sour Cherry Sweet Rolls, made mostly from this recipe, were the perfect breakfast treat to celebrate my newly crowned queen of the summer fruits. I used this recipe mainly because it allowed for refrigeration of the dough, retarding the rising process, which allowed for a freshly baked sweet roll in the morning, not the afternoon as many double rise doughs will have you do. For the filling I kept it simple. I brushed the dough with a few tablespoons of melted butter, and sprinkled a half cup of dark brown sugar, before studding it with pitted sour cherries.

Roll, slice, and place in a baking dish, and then the fridge, and soon they are ready to be baked. As the rolls were baking they perfumed the house with the of homey smell of yeast, and when brought out of the oven– they were beautiful. Some of the cherries had worked their way to the top, popping out of the sweetened dough, and getting a caramel-like glaze from the filling. I honestly can’t say enough about these rolls, they were sweet, but not too sweet, tart from the cherries, but not too tart, chewy but not too chewy. But they were just delicious enough to make me want more.