Cherry Pie!

serves 8

i had the pleasure of making this for a bbq and somehow divided this up into 17 pieces for everyone to try and it was a hit! I used frozen cherries but i’ll definitely be trying it with fresh cherries over summer.

ingredients:

for the butter crust:

• butter! 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled & salted, cut into ¼-inch cubes

  • note: pull directly from the fridge before cutting and put back in the fridge or even freezer to keep chill before assembling the dough. keeping the butter cold during this process is key.

• 2 ¼ cups organic italian 00 flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 8 to 10 tablespoons ice water

for the cherry filling:

• 32 oz frozen organic pitted dark cherries, thawed, juices saved— 1 cup of cherry juice needed

• 1/4 cup organic non-gmo cornstarch

• 1/4 cup filtered water

• 3/4 cup organic cane sugar

• 1/2 tsp organic cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp organic ginger

• 1/4 tsp organic almond extract

• pinch of sea salt (I use redmonds)

• 1 small egg

• turbinado sugar (optional) for garnishing top

optional toppings:

• homemade whipped cream

• homemade ice cream!!

for the homemade whipped cream:

• 1 cup organic heavy whipping cream

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 tbsp (add more if you like) of pure maple syrup

directions:

for the crust:

• *Remember— When making butter crust, keeping the butter COLD while prepping the dough is key.

• In a food processor, pulse the butter, flour, and salt until the mixture looks like coarse sand with pea-sized chunks of butter. This should take around 15-20 short pulses.

  • I have also used a Kitchenaid standing mixer to do this and it works great too. follow the same process, but using the mixer instead of pulsing in the food processor.

• Gradually add ice water, one tablespoon at a time, pulsing 4-5 times after each addition. Stop when the dough begins to form large clumps and pulls away from the bowl.

• Turn the dough out onto a surface and gather it into a lump. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap in parchment paper and then a plastic bag to keep from drying out and refrigerate for an hour. (you can also throw in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill if you are in a time crunch but do not forget its there!). You can let the dough chill in the fridge over night too.

  • KEY!! Handle the dough as little as possible to prevent warming it with your hands, which can melt the butter and make the crust less flaky.

• Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin. Roll the dough from the center outwards until the crust is about 4 inches larger than your pie pan.

• Fold dough in half to help transfer in the pie pan and flute the edges.

• Refrigerate the dough-lined pie pan for 40 minutes while you prep your filling. Meanwhile, position an oven rack in the lower-middle and preheat the oven to 375°F.

• for this recipe, I wanted to lattice the top of the pie.. aka weave as in the picture. this is super easy to do. cut your 2nd rolled out pie crust into 1 inch slices and layer them in a weaved pattern.

for the filling:

• start by straining the thawed, room temp cherries and saving the cherry juice, measuring. 1 cup of juice. keep the cherries in a glass bowl.

• in a sauce pan, bring the cup of cherry juice to a boil. add the cane sugar and bring back to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved into the juice.

• in a bowl, mix the cornstarch and water super well. once the sugar is dissolved, pour the cornstarch water mixture into the cherry sugar juice. keep on the heat and mixing until the juice thickens. remove from the heat and pour the juice into the bowl of cherries.

• stir in the ginger, cinnamon, almond extract, and sea salt into the cherry filling.

• allow this to chill in the fridge until cool! you do not want to pour warm cherry filling into the butter crust!

• once the filling is cool, remove the crust in the pan from the fridge and pour the filling into the center.

• for the lattice crust top: layer and weave the dough pieces as in the picture. cut the ends of the lattice pieces so you can properly fold the excess bottom crust over the ends of the lattice ends and flute the edges.

• place your pie on a baking sheet and then onto the hot oven rack. using a baking sheet on the rack helps distribute the heat to the pie pan better.

• bake at 425 for 20 minutes and drop the temperature to 375 for 50 minutes.

• serve with whipped cream or ice cream!

enjoy!