Ingredients

  • 1 double-crust dough recipe
  • 4 cups pitted fresh cherries (about 2 1/2 pounds unpitted)
  • 4 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2/3 to 3/4 cup sugar (adjust this according to the sweetness of your cherries)
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits
  • Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water)
  • Coarse sugar, for decoration

Directions

  1. Prepare a double crust.
  2. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  3. Stir together the cherries, cornstarch, sugar, salt, lemon and almond extract gently together in a large bowl.
  4. Roll out half of chilled dough (use larger piece, if you’ve divided them unevenly) on a floured work surface to 13-inch round. Gently place it in 9-inch pie pan, either by rolling it around the rolling pin and unrolling it over the pan or by folding it into quarters and unfolding it in the pan. Trim edges to a half-inch overhang.
  5. Spoon filling into pie crust, discarding the majority of the liquid that has pooled in the bowl. Dot the filling with the bits of cold butter.
  6. Roll out the remaining dough into a 12-inch round on a lightly floured surface, drape it over the filling, and trim it, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Fold the overhang under the bottom crust, pressing the edge to seal it, and crimp the edge decoratively. Brush the egg wash over over pie crust, then sprinkle with coarse sugar.
  7. Cut slits in the crust with a sharp knife, forming steam vents, and bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350°F. and bake the pie for 25 to 30 minutes more, or until the crust is golden. Let the pie cool on a rack.

Notes

  • If you pit fresh cherries to make this, you should make cherry pit whipped cream with the pits. It’s basically just a matter of steeping all your pits in about a cup of cream while your pie bakes and cools.

Source

Smitten Kitchen

Comments

2022-01-01 (Jack)

I made this pie for my birthday today, but I kind of had to wing it towards the end. I used frozen cherries at the amount specified (4 cups), but the resulting mixture was not enough cherries and too much sugar soup (I used 3/4 cup of sugar). I also tossed in some vanilla for good measure. It didn’t fill up my deep dish pie plate, so I dumped in some still-frozen cherries at the last minute just before I baked it. I ended up baking it for an extra 10-20 minutes longer than specified, and the results were surprisingly good! The pie set up perfectly, and it had a surprisingly nice variety of texture between the thawed and frozen cherries. The “sugar soup” also set up/thickened nicely. Would make again!