Good Ol' Cherry Pie
Why I Love This Recipe
I am a great advocate for using Amarelle cherries for cherry pie, as opposed to Morello. I believe that they have better flavor, so much so that I will use canned Montmorency cherries (an Amarelle variety) before I will use fresh Morello. And since there are not a lot of Montmorency cherries growing in Southern California, as in none, I end up using canned cherries A LOT.
Ingredients You'll Need
1 recipe Pâte Brisée with or without the sugar, your choice
2 Cans of Montmorency Cherries – Trader Joe’s use to carry them... 'OREGON' in the black can, sometime labeled “Tart Pie cherries” but they are Montmorency cherries
1/3 cup Honey (Preferably a fruit honey, but fireweed honey lends a “creaminess”)
3 TB Arrowroot powder
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Mace
Pinch of 2 of salt
2 TB Butter, cut into 8 pieces
Egg white wash
Sanding or granulated sugar
Directions
Open cans, drain the cherries from one can really well.
When draining the second can, reserve the juice in a medium saucepan.
Remove 2 TB of the liquid to a small ramekin and add the arrowroot powder.
Stir to create slurry, and then add back to the saucepan.
Place saucepan over medium low heat and add honey, salt, cinnamon and mace.
Stir sauce with a whisk until it begins to bubble and thicken.
Once the sauce is thick, remove from heat and fold in all the cherries, don’t worry if the filling seems a little runny, you still have to bake it, so it will thicken more.
Roll out 1 disk of the pâte brisée and line a 9 inch glass pie dish. (Not the 9 ½ inch deep dish made by Pyrex, but a normal sized shallow 9 inch dish)
Leave any pastry that hangs over the edge, you will need it later.
Pour cherry filling into the shell, dot with the 8 pieces of butter
Roll out your second disk of pâte brisée
Using a fluted pastry wheel, or a sharp knife, slice the pastry into strips about 1/2 inch wide.
Starting in the middle of the pie and working perpendicular create a lattice top weaving each consecutive strip leaving about 1/2 inch between each of the strips.
Cut the ends of strips that are longer than the overhanging bottom shell so they are flush.
Fold the bottom pastry up and over to create a ridge of dough around the outside edge of the pie.
Pinch crimp the pastry between thumb and forefinger, or Press crimp using thumb and forefinger pressed together on the inside ridge and press your thumb in between them from the outside, you may also fork crimp by pressing down on the dough ridge with the tines of a fork. (Although I have found this doesn’t hold very well and is best used on single pastry pies such as coconut pecan or banana cream as a decorative edge)
Bake pie in a preheated 400 degree oven for 25 minutes
Remove from oven and use egg wash over the crust and lattice, try not to brush the filling as it will stick to your pastry brush.
Sprinkle the top of the crust with sanding or granulated sugar and return pie to oven for 10 -15 minutes or until top is golden brown.
If the crimped edge becomes too dark before the lattice has browned, use crust guards of small strips of foil to cover the crimped edge.
