This pie is… in one word… AMAZING.
I have played with cherry pies for years. No matter how hard I tried though, I could not assemble a cherry pie that I thought was a winner. Until now.
This will absolutely work with frozen pie cherries, let me assure you of that. Thaw them first, and then discard any juices that accumulate while they thaw. You can also used canned pie cherries- again, just drain them first. What I wouldn’t use would be sweet cherries. If you do decide to do that, you’ll want to drastically reduce the sugar- I would say down to 3/4 cup total.
This recipe was adapted from one on Epicurious for Classic Sour Cherry Pie with Lattice Crust. I didn’t use their crust, or do the lattice top for starters. I also played with the sugar a bit- I left the white sugar at 1 cup, and then added 1/4 packed cup of light brown sugar for some depth. I cut the butter in half to just 1 tablespoon, and in the future, I will still use the 3 tablespoons of cornstarch, but I won’t level the tablespoons- I will let them heap just a touch, as I thought the filling could have used the tiniest bit more starch. Just before baking my pie, I brushed the top with milk and then sprinkled it with a bit of sugar.
Oh my gosh, this was so incredibly good. The brown sugar, vanilla and butter combined to give the whole pie an essence of caramel- it was wickedly good and is an instant family favorite.
Fresh Cherry Pie
2 disks of your favorite pie dough 5 cups pitted sour pie cherries 1 cup white sugar 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar 3 tablespoons cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon butter, cut into pieces milk and sugar for the top crustDirections:
Preheat oven to 425ºF.
Roll out your bottom pie crust and place it in a 9-inch pie plate. Roll out your top crust, and then combine the filling ingredients.
In a mixing bowl combine the cherries, sugars, cornstarch, salt, lemon juice and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour the filling into the bottom crust. Dot the top with the butter pieces, and then add the top crust. Fold and crimp the edges together.
Brush the top crust very lightly with milk, and the sprinkle it with white sugar- gently, just a touch. Cut three or four slits, evenly spaced, in the top crust.
Bake at 425ºF for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375ºF, and bake the pie until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling- about 1 hour. If necessary, cover the edges of the crust with foil if they brown too quickly.
Allow to cool completely before slicing into this pie.