Sweet Cherry Pie

  • Sweet Cherry Pie

    Sometimes fruit calls out to you in the grocery store, when it’s impossibly fresh, just asking to be baked into a double buttery crust.  When cherries are in season, heed that voice.  Even though they are as expensive as hell.

    1 double-inch pastry pie-crust (try this flaky pie crust recipe)

    1 cup sugar

    1/8 teaspoon salt

    4 tablespoons instant/ quick-cooking tapioca

    4 cups pitted cherries (typically two large bags from the grocery store; try not to buy over-ripe ones)

    ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

    ¼ teaspoon almond extract

    2 tablespoons salted butter (cut into small dabs)

    1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
    2. Place bottom crust dough into a 9” pie plate, and keep in fridge until ready to use, along with rolled out top crust. Combine sugar, salt, tapioca, cherries, vanilla and almond extracts in a large bowl, and let sit for 20 minutes.
    3. Pour cherry mixture into bottom crust, dot with butter dabs, and place top crust over bottom half.
    4. Crimp edges of pie together so cherry filling doesn’t bubble out, and cut 4-5 slits in the top of the pastry.
    5. Place pie on a foil-lined cookie sheet, and bake for 45-50 minutes (until golden brown).

    Tips:

    • If your cherries taste sweet, your pie will be sweet.  If your cherries taste sour, you might want to add a bit more sugar if you prefer a sweeter pie.
    • Feeling frisky?  Sprinkle a ¼ cup of slivered almonds between the pie mixture and the crust, when you’re dabbing the butter over the cherry.
    • Don’t have tapioca starch?  You can substitute corn starch.  Tapioca is supposed to provide a better texture for fruit pies with a more neutral flavor, or so they say.
    • It is annoying to pit 4 cups of cherries.  But you can get yourself into a nice rhythm, methodically slicing them open, cutting them in half, trying not to get cherry juice on everything.
    Print Friendly, PDF & EmailClick Here to PRINT This Recipe Now!

    Related Recipes & Posts:


    January 25th, 2012 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: , , ,

Leave a Reply

* Name, Email, and Comment are Required