Eat Happy: Homemade Cherry Pie
Aug 3rd, 2008 by kitliz
I actually didn’t even know that I was a fan of cherry pie until last year when MysteryMan showed up at my house with a gallon bag of hand picked sour cherries for me to “do something with.” Up until then I’m pretty sure my experience with cherry pie was limited to those pastries you can get at McDonalds that can survive 300 years and a nuclear blast and still be edible. Thanks, but no thanks.
As it turns out, I love homemade cherry pie.
What I used:
- 4 cups freshly picked cherries (I got to help with that part this year)
- a paperclip
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup instant tapioca pudding mix
- 2 Tbsp vanilla pudding mix
- a pinch of cinnamon
- 2 store bought pie crusts (Because 2 hours pitting cherries is quite enough time to spend on a pie. Seriously.)
What I did:
Step 1: Pit ‘em
Mmmm. They look tempting, but putting one in your mouth is like eating a wedge of lemon. Nice, if you’re into that kind of thing, but franky, I don’t recommend it.
I hear that they’ve got this newfangled invention that actually is designed to pit cherries, but since I didn’t have one handy, I used this:
The little end of a paper clip works as good as anything, and once I got the hang of it was kind of fun in a something-I-can-do-while-watching-a-movie kind of way.
Even so, it takes some time. And patience.
(I’m not sure what my aversion to using “ing” is in this post, but there it is, we all just have to deal with it.)
The first cherry pie I ever made following Betty Crocker’s recipe to a tee, actually turned out undercooked and runny. Screw Betty. The advice from my world-class pie making grandmother was to make the filling first instead of just mixing the sugar and berries in the crust and praying it solidifies. So…
I like to heat the pitted cherries on Med-low heat for a minute (while stirring) to start to get the juices out.
Then mix in the sugar, pinch of cinnamon, tapioca, and vanilla pudding and turn the heat up to medium until you start to get some serious juice.
Like this…
Then, after it gets boiling I take it off the heat and let it solidify.
Step 3: Crust It
I forgot to take a picture of this step because I was overcome by cherry filled goodness. So sue me. But basically pie crust meets pie pan, pour in filling, top with second crust.
Volia!
Since the filling is pre-cooked, the pie only has to bake until the crust is done. 25-30 minutes in a 475 oven.
Step 4: Smother with Vanilla Ice Cream
Now you can die happy. It’s that good.
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Yum. Summer pies are the best– cherry and strawberry-rhubarb and key lime…
I like to soak dried cherries (and/or cranberries) in bourbon and add them to apple pie. I did mini-pies for presents a couple of years ago at the holidays and they were pretty darn good, I must say. I keep thinking I need to try them with fresh berries. Now might be the time.
That looks amazing! I love how you show each step too (we forgive you for the filling the pie crust step).
I have a bag full of currants in my freezer right now and the only thing I know to do with the sour things is make jelly. Could I use this same pie recipe for my currants and make a sour current pie that tastes as good as a sour cherry pie?