As you can see above, my cherry pie is cooling on the windowsill with the pick-up truck in the driveway and Dad Merschat coming in after a hard day's work setting up for the 4th of July bonfire. If that's not all-American, I don't know what is.
My brother-in-law searched high and low for traditional New England sour cherries but couldn't find them so he brought down these sweet pie cherries all the way down from New Hampshire. And this is a new pie crust recipe passed down from our friend Nathan's sister up in Maine (and I had never made a cherry pie before) so this was quite an experiment. Fortunately, it was a huge hit at the dessert table and got rave reviews from everyone at the 2nd Annual Merschat Family Garden Party & Bonfire!
All in all, it took me a little over an hour to put together and then another hour to bake but if I were organized enough, I could have made the crust up to a week in advance, pit the cherries the day before, and then assembled the pie in no time on the day of the party... but no, as usual I threw everything together at the last minute and poor Michael sat pitting cherries for an hour while I made the crust. But it was worth it and I'll definitely make this again!
Sweet Cherry Pie
INGREDIENTS
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
1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons water
Coarse sugar, for decoration
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Stir together the cherries, cornstarch, sugar, salt, lemon and almond extract gently together in a large bowl.
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.
Spoon filling into pie crust, discarding the majority of the liquid that has pooled in the bowl. Top the pie with a lattice pattern.
If you've never done a lattice pie, this step-by-step tutorial was perfect for me.
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 (
or on windowsill).
Pie Crust
INGREDIENTS
4 cups all-purpose flour (or 2 cups all-purpose and 2 cups wheat flour)
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 3/4 cup butter/shortening
1 egg
1 Tbsp. vinegar
Up to 3/4 cup cold water (add 1 Tbsp. at a time)
Mix flour, salt and sugar.
Cut in butter/shortening with pastry cutter or pulse in food processor.
Mix in egg and vinegar. If it needs a little more moisture, add a little bit of water at a time. You don't want it too wet.
Divide in half. Roll into ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and leave it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour or up to a week.
Lightly flour surface to roll out dough and put it in the pie pan!
