Cherry Pie is quintessentially summer on a plate! If all you’ve ever experienced is canned cherry pie filling in an insipid, limp commercial pie crust prepare to be dazzled. It’s going to take a bit of work but the end product is mind blowing pielicious!
The most difficult part will be finding the pie cherries. They’re in season now so look for them at your local farmer’s markets. Don’t use sweet cherries; only tart pie cherries will work. I used Montmorency cherries from my own tree planted specifically so that I could bake this pie.
The next time consuming thing is the pitting of the cherries. An awesome trick is to use a butchers knife to gently flatten the cherry; the pit slides right out! Once your cherries are pitted you’re good to go. Trust me, this pie is what summer memories are made of.
CHERRY PIE – makes one 9″ pie
FILLING
- 2 lbs sour pie cherries, stemmed and pitted – will yield 5 cups
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
THE STEPS:
- Whisk the sugar, salt and cornstarch in a large bowl.
- Stir in the cherries, lemon juice and pure vanilla extract.
- Set aside
EGG WASH
Whisk 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of whipping cream – set aside.
PIE PASTRY
You will have leftover pastry that you can freeze for future use.
Preheat oven 455*F
- 5 ½ cups all – purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 lb TENDERFLAKE LARD, room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- Ice water
THE STEPS:
- Place flour, baking powder, brown sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir well.
- Cut lard into the flour with a pastry blender until it resembles a coarse meal.
- Beat egg in the bottom of a one-cup measure.
- Mix in vinegar then fill cup with ice water.
- Pour liquid mixture over the flour/lard mixture and combine with a fork until it forms a mass. At this point, I put on a pair of disposable rubber gloves and finish working the lard into the flour.
- Place pastry on a floured surface and knead several times.
- Divide the pastry into three equal pieces.
- Flour surface again and roll out one piece of dough to ¼“ thickness.
- Add more flour if the pastry is sticking.
- Make sure that you are applying even pressure on your rolling-pin so that your pastry is able to bake evenly.
- With a dry pastry brush, sweep off excess flour from the top of the pie dough.
- Starting at one end of pastry, roll pastry onto the rolling-pin.
- Place rolling-pin on pie plate and unroll on top of pie plate.
- Gently push pastry into pie plate.
- Fill pie shell with prepared fruit and dot with butter cubes.
- Roll out the pie top then roll onto the rolling pin.
- Lightly brush the edge of the bottom crust with egg wash then unroll the pie top over the fruit filled pie shell.
- Gently seal the bottom and upper crusts then using a knife cut away the excess pie crust.
- Crimp the pie edge using your fingers or a fork.
- Carefully cut vent holes in the top crust to allow steam to escape.
- Place pie on the bottom rack of your preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes then reduce oven heat to 350*F and bake an additional 45 minutes.
- The pie is properly bakes when the bottom crust is golden and the filling is bubbly.
THE LOVE: Always use a clear Pyrex pie plate so that you can see your bottom crust.
Stay safe. Thanks for reading. XO
