sweet cherry pie

Have you ever been in the mood to make a pie? To pull out your go-to, flaky, no-nonsense pie crust filled to the brim with juicy fruit from the market? Such urges require you to scour and search for the best looking fruit and when you don’t get what you are looking for you get in a funk – or at least that’s what I did. I have made only one fruit pie and I was quite pleased with the results. The dough was buttery and flaky, the fruit was soft, yet the juices didn’t create a soggy bottom crust. I had such great beginners luck I felt invincible. I would boast of my awesome pie skills to myself because, after all, everyone complains about their crust being too tough, too dry, too dense, too card-board-like, too bland, yada, yada, yada. But I entered into the pie world fearless. So when my invincible awesomeness was challenged with unavailable fruit I got into a somewhat mild funk.

I want to make a sour cherry pie. All they have are sweet cherries! This is not what I want. Why can’t any of these stores have what I want. Is it that difficult for the store to order a bag of sour cherries with a bag of sweet cherries? No it’s not, yet nobody, and I mean nobody, has any sour cherries. I could buy Bing and Rainer cherries out the waa-zoo but not a single sour cherry to be found. Josh graciously chauffeured me to two different super markets and called two more to see if the trip would yield sour cherries. Not even my seafood man had sour cherries!

I grumpily shoved the sweet cherries into my bag, mumbling all the way to the check out. Then came the bill. Now I was really grumpy. That much?! For cherries that aren’t even the right kind of cherries?! But I was determined. Fine sweet cherries. If that’s the game you want to play. I will bake you in a pie that is just as good as a sour cherry pie. I will make you the envy of the sour cherries. I pre-baked the crust, ensuring the bottom crust would not become soggy, then filled the shell with a simple cherry filling of cherries, a little smidge of sugar since the cherries are sweet, and of course, booze. Nothing is complete without the booze. Baked the pie and out came gloriousness. I almost don’t want to make a sour cherry pie, because this one hit the spot – the cherry pie spot.

Sweet Cherry Pie

Note: After baking the bottom crust I let the pie shell rest for about 10 minutes as I was finishing the cherry filling and rolling out my top crust. Because the crust has so much butter when I draped the top crust on top of the cherry filling it was very hard to crimp the edges into anything that looked presentable. The heat from the crust and pie pan were still very hot and melted the crust into mushy un-pliableness. I suggest either letting your crust cool down drastically or crimping the bottom crust and then attach the top crust over the crimped edges – but beware that your pre-baked crust will shrink so allow a generous crimped overhang.

Flaky, All Butter Pie Crust:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) frozen unsalted butter, cut into pieces
8 – 10 tablespoons ice water

Cherry Pie Filling:

2/3 cup sugar
2 pounds (about 6 cups) sweet cherries, rinsed and pitted
3 tablespoons instant tapioca
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon bourbon

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Course sugar for decoration

Crust: In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade add flour and salt and pulse together to combine. Add butter and pulse until pea sized bits remain. Add water and pulse to combine. If needed add one tablespoon at a time until mixture comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Trying to handle the dough as little as possible, divide the dough in half and form two discs. (If you are crimping the bottom crust divide the dough into 2/3 (bottom) and 1/3 (top) pieces.) Wrap discs in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour, or up to 3 days, before rolling out and baking.

Heat oven to 425°F. On a lightly floured surface roll out the large disc into a 12-inch circle, about 3/8-inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate. Line dough with foil and weight down with pie weights (dry beans or rice work great as pie weights). Bake until crust is light golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Filling: While the pie crust is baking, prepare the filling. In the bowl of a food processor, combine sugar, tapioca and cinnamon. Run the motor until the tapioca is finely ground (I processed it for about 2 minutes straight and I still had some small tapioca balls. I just tossed it in with the cherries regardless, but you can always pulse longer if you have superior patience to mine.) In a large bowl combine cherries, tapioca mixture and bourbon. Toss gently to combine.

When pie crust is ready, transfer it to a wire wrack to cool and reduce heat to 375°F. Remove foil and weights. Add filling to the crust.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the remaining disc of dough into a 11-inch circle, about 3/8-inch thick. Gently drape it over the filling and trim it. Crimp the edges together. Whisk together the egg and water. Brush egg wash over the pie crust then sprinkle with coarse sugar. Cut slits into the crust with a sharp knife, forming steam vents. Bake until crust is dark golden brown and the filling begins to bubble, about 50 – 60 minutes. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cook for at least 2 hours, allowing the filling to set before serving.