Cherry Pie

Cherry pie recipe

Cherry pie is the most wondrous thing. The plump cherries fill your mouth, the salty crust crumbles before you even bite down. 

You can use sweet or sour cherries for this. I prefer sour.

For the pie crust, I simply use the recipe on the Tenderflake box. Some people prefer butter, but I find my crusts are always flakey and delicious. Do use salt and do not over-mix; my dough is quite marbled.

Have two discs of dough ready in the fridge before you start.

Cherry pie filling

4 to 5 cups of cherries, frozen or unfrozen, pitted

1 cup of sugar

¼ cup of cornstarch

¼ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice for sweet cherries; none for sour cherries

¼ teaspoon almond extract

Put cherries into a saucepan on medium heat. 

Mix together separately the sugar, salt and cornstarch.

When the cherries are hot and have given up a lot of juice, mix in lemon juice. Then mix in cornstarch and sugar, stirring to blend it all together. Cook, stirring, until it thickens and the juice turns clear and firms up. Mix in the almond extract. Take off heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out one disc of dough and fit it into the bottom of the pie plate. Add cherry pie filling. Roll out the other disc of dough. Now you can get creative: punch round holes in it with tiny cookie cutters or cut it into strips for a lattice or just put it onto the pie, pinch around to seal the edges and cut vents into the top. 

If you want, brush the top with beaten egg or milk and sprinkle with sugar. Otherwise just put it on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven for 50 minutes.