Sour Cherry Pie

When sour cherries become available, I make Sour Cherry Pie. Well, first, I go cherry picking, pitting and freezing, but that’s another story. I have given you the recipe two-crust pie. It’s the Fannie Farmer recipe that my family has always used. Obviously, you could make a lattice crust, or have an open top. Even a crumble, but that would be wrong. There are lots of different pie crusts out there, but for me, the crust is very important. Different pies require different crusts. Rhubarb? Lattice. Blueberry? I don’t even like blueberry pie and I know the answer to that one. Crumble. Cherry? Two crust. It’s just the way it is. Here in PA, fortunately there are sour cherries. In California, it was almost impossible to get them. My uncle Pete was famous for hauling them home from Door County every July. That’s how good Sour Cherry Pie is, drag them through the airport good.

Sour Cherry pie filling:
2 quarts cherries
1 ½ cups sugar
2-3 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ – ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper- just try it, it’s awesome!

Pastry Dough (for a-9 inch pie)

Make the dough. While it’s chilling, pit the cherries. Trust me. You want a pitter.  Toss the cherries, sugar, flour, salt and pepper.  If there’s a lot of juice, I recommend straining it and cooking it down to 25% of its initial volume. This way you keep the flavor but you don’t have a really messy pie. Pour juice back into cherry mixture and reserve while you assemble the crust. Preheat oven to 425° F. Sprinkle counter with flour. Roll out the bottom layer as thinly as possible. Set into pie pan. Fill with cherries. Roll out top layer. Cover. Decorate as you see fit. Set your pie on a sheet pan- you’ll thank me later for this advice. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° F and bake 40 – 50 minutes. You can dot with butter and sugar before the final 5 minutes to get a shiny sugary gloss. It’s pretty and a lot of pie places did that where I grew up. But no one added black pepper. For that, you have to make it yourself. Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream.