The Friday Baking Project
Cherry pie

Cherry Pie

Yield: 1 9†pie

# of Servings: 8 to 10

Ingredients:

1 recipe Summer Pie Dough

Filling:

5 ½ cups sour cherries, pitted¹ (about 2 quarts of cherries)

1 ¼ cup (9 oz / 255 g) sugar

¼ cup (1.2 oz / 34 g) cornstarch

2 tbl cherry liquid²

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

¼ tsp almond extract

2 tbl (1 oz / 28 g) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Egg wash and sugar:

1 egg, lightly beaten

Turbinado sugar, as needed, (optional)

Special tools and equipment needed:

• 1 9†pie pan
•  Cherry pitter
•  Pastry wheel, fluted preferred
•  Pastry brush
• Baking sheet, large enough to hold the pie pan    

Pre-recipe preparations:

• Rinse and pit the cherries. Place in a colander over a bowl to collect the water running off from the cherries (cherry liquid).

Directions

Crust: 

1. Roll out the bottom piece of pie dough into a 13†circle. Fit gently into a 9†pie dish.

2. Trim the edge leaving a ½â€ to ¾â€ overhang. Place pie shell in refrigerator, cover loosely with plastic wrap.

3. Roll out remaining dough to 12†circle, place on a large flat surface (silpat, pastry mat, cutting board) and refrigerate.

Filling and finishing for baking:

Preheat oven to 425 °F

1. Combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch, cherry liquid, lemon juice, almond extract in a large bowl.

2. Toss gently and let stand for 15 minutes.

3. Pour into crust, including all the juices that have collected in the bowl. Dot with the butter cubes.

4. Remove top crust from the refrigerator. Using pastry wheel or a knife, cut into ¾â€ strips.

5. Brush edge of pie dish with water or egg wash.

6. Lay 5 to 7 strips of pastry dough across the top in the same direction, making sure they touch the edge of the dough.

7. Create a weave by placing the remaining dough strips over and under the first layer of strips. Follow any YouTube video for help on this, such as the one from King Arthur: How to weave a lattice pie crust – YouTube.

8. Trim the strips close to the edge of the pie. Roll the bottom pastry overhang over the strip edges, and crimp decoratively.

9. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

10.  Brush the lattice with the egg wash and sprinkle pastry strips with turbinado sugar (optional).

Baking: (Total baking time is from 1 hour to 1 hour 12 minutes)

1. Place pie pan directly on oven rack and back for 30 minutes. 

2. Remove pie from oven and place on parchment, or silpat, lined baking sheet.

3. Reduce oven temperature to 350 °F. Return the pie to the oven and bake until the juices in the middle of the pie are bubbling, an additional 30 to 42 minutes more. If edge of pie is browning too much, cover edge with aluminum foil.

4. Remove pie from oven and cool on a rack for approximately 3 hours before serving.

5. Pie may be left at room temperature for 1 day. After that, refrigerate or freeze.

Notes:

1 Montmorency cherries are the most common type of sour cherry in the United States. Morellos are another type. Two and half pounds of whole cherries, should yield 5 ½ cups pitted cherries.

2 Cherry liquid is simply the cherry tinted water that accumulates as the washed cherries sit in a colander.