ISO: ISO T&T Cherry Pie Recipe - tree finally producing enough for 1 pie.

[music-city-missy]

DH asked his sister who lives in Michigan how to make one and she said se asked the cherry farmer and he said they put the cherries in ice water before pitting and then they use tapicoa flour to thicken it. Anybody have a recipe like that or a good tried and true recipe? TIA

 

[CathyZ]

Missy, maybe I can help

When I make cherry pie I don't soak the cherries in ice water and I am not certain why they do it- unless it firms the cherries so they don't release juice as fast, thereby giving the crust enough baking time to firm up before the juicy part starts.....

I use 5-6 cups of cherries for a 10" pie shell. I mix the cherries with 1/2-1 cup of sugar depending on how tart the cherries are, about 2 huge rounded tbsp of corn starch or tapioca flour, a pinch of salt, a tsp of cinnamon. I generally add about a tbsp of chopped candied ginger too. Mix all together and pour into the shell. Dot with 1 tbsp butter cut up. Either make a lattice crust or just place a second whole crust over the top of the cherries after wetting the bottom crust lip and flute the edge. Cut slits in the pie. Brush with milk and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over the top and bake. Make sure you put a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan under the pie because it probably will boil over.

 

[music-city-missy]

Cathy - do you use sour or sweet cherries?...

we tried one last night and DH isn't satisfied with it. It was from Cooks Illustrated which is always good but he didn't let me put all of the spices in it and didn't like the lemon and almond that I did get in it. We have more cherries than we've ever had but still probably not enough to get a lot of testing in so I need to try and figure this out before I go much further with the rest of the cherries. Your recipe sounds like it's a much 'purer' cherry flavor than what I started with last night. TIA

 

[CathyZ]

Depends on what I can get but my favorite is sour cherries, Missy

If I use sweet cherries I drastically reduce the sugar amount and add more lemon.

You probably know this- but there are two ways of making a nice cherry pie- one using the "raw" fruit as I wrote about about and how you made yesterday and then the other way where you cook the filling before you put it in the shell. It looks more like the canned-type filling after cooking but is still fresh-tasting. If you cook the filling, try using about 4 c water with the cherries, bring to a boil then turn down and simmer about 10 minutes. Pour off (but keep) all but about a cup of the liquid then dissolve the tapioca (or corn starch) in a little water then mix in- add sugar, cinnamon, whatever other stuff you like. Candied ginger would be good in a cherry pie too- then cook it a bit more to get the tapioca taste out (and thicken it) and pour into the shell.

There is also an old-fashioned Sour Cream Cherry Pie recipe that has you make a graham cracker shell (shortbread crust is good too), chill it then fill with a mixture of 3 beaten eggs, cooked cherry pie filling that includes the sugar and tapioca, spices and some sour cream. You bake this mixture without a top crust. Decadent but pretty good.

My sneaky advice is to make a pie when the DH is off doing something....then you can put whatever you want in it- LOL