Delicious Recipes for Desserts!

There are a lot of ways to make a Cherry Pie. During the summer months, I like to use either sweet or sour fresh cherries. But in the dead of winter, when I have a hankering for a homemade Cherry Pie, I use either canned or bottled sour cherries. Cherry Pie, made either way, is delicious, and the perfect dessert, especially when served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Just as you can use different types of cherries to make a Cherry Pie, you can also use different types of pastry crusts. If you have a personal favorite, by all means use it instead of this recipe for Pate Brisee, which is a short crust pastry. Pate Brisee is a combination of butter and flour with a little salt and sugar added for flavor. Water binds all the ingredients together and you end up with a pastry that has a wonderful buttery flavor and crumbly texture. I have chosen a top crust that is in the form of pastry stars which makes for a very festive pie, especially at your next 4th of July celebration. (This innovative idea comes from Martha Stewart excellent new books called ‘Martha’s Stewart’s Baking Handbook’.) If you prefer, though, you could use a lattice crust (like this Strawberry Rhubarb Pie) or you could simply have just a round of pastry (like this Apple Pie) with a few slits cut into the pastry.

As I mentioned above, there are two types of cherries that can be used to make a Cherry Pie, sweet or sour, with many varieties within each classification. The type of cherry used will affect how much sugar is added to the cherry filling. I find that sour cherries need the full amount of sugar given in the recipe, whereas a little less is needed for sweet cherries. Be sure to taste and adjust the amount of sugar. What I will say if you are using fresh cherries, either sweet or sour, is that they should be pitted. And the easiest way to pit cherries is to buy a cherry pitter, a very inexpensive and effective tool. Along with the cherries and sugar, the filling has a little tapioca to thicken the cherry juices, salt to bring out the cherry’s flavor, a little vanilla extract, Kirsch, and lemon juice (to prevent discoloration). The cherry pie is baked until the crust is golden brown and the cherry juices are beginning to bubble. Let the pie cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before cutting. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Other cherry recipes on the site you might try, Cherry Tart, Cherry Cake, and Cherry Clafoutis. All use the wonderful sweet yet tangy flavored Bing Cherry. When buying Bing cherries look for plump and shiny fruit with a deep red, almost black, color. They should be firm to the touch with no soft spots, and their stems should still be attached.

More Recipes at Joyofbaking.com

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