Cherry Pie: A February Must-Have Here on the Farm!

I am totally repeating this cherry pie tip because the pie comes out perfect every time! So here's a February/Presidents' Day all things George Washington recipe for you! 

Ya' gotta start with good pie crust or the pie ain't worth eatin', so go HERE for the pie crust recipe.  Mary Curry's crust recipe is in the top post, mine is in the second one. Once you have the crust made....

I order a HUGE box of frozen pitted sour cherries each summer from a local farm stand.

Then I re-freeze the cherries in quart sized freezer bags. It takes about two bags to make a good pie, but I also use DEEP pie pans so if yours are narrower, then you can scale back the recipe to suit. I can never, ever, ever get enough fruit in my pies, so I'm okay with a little country spillover!

Cherry Pie Filling

6 cups pitted sour cherries
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup flour
3 tablespoons butter

Warm cherries in large kettle on stove top over medium heat. Mix sugar and flour together. Add to warm, juicy cherries. Toss in butter. Heat on medium low, stirring now and again, until mixture thickens into pie filling consistency.

Why? you wonder.

Why am I doing this when I could simply toss the cherries into the crust, add the sugar and flour, dot with butter and be done with it?

ANSWER:  soggy pie. Soggy pie means soggy pie crust. Yuck. Try it this way. Really. Do I ever (mostly?) lead you astray? 

I cook berry pie filling first always. Strawberry Rhubarb, blueberry, cherry.... The end result is awesome and that's what counts, right?

So now roll out your first crust and gently re-roll it up, onto the rolling pin and transfer it to the pie pan. If it breaks a little, mend it. It will be fine, I promise.

Now pile in the pie filling. Feel free to taste some. Make sure it's good!!!!  ;)

Crimp edges if using dutch crumb topping.  (recipe HERE , scroll down to bottom of page for the Dutch Crumb topping)

If you're going to use a regular crust topping (I like that better with cherry pie) then cover the cherry mix with the top crust, tuck edges up and under the bottom crust, then crimp them together by pinching little "V's" all around the outside edge. Then cover those edges with strips of foil because they cook faster than everything else and no one wants burned pie crust, right?

And here it is:

I like to do lattice crusts because they look fancy.

I am not a fancy person, but I like my pies to be fancy. Like I'm living vicariously through baked goods.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 25-35 minutes, depending on your oven. I do add a folded narrow piece of foil over the crimped crust edge when I bake fruit pies... it keeps them from burning, although the quicker baking time with the pre-done fruit makes that pretty much a non-issue with this one.

So here's what's going on in my neck of the woods this week:

A beautiful Super Snow Moon peeking through the trees!!!

We have lots of winter cloud cover off the Great Lakes, so it's always fun to welcome the moon and the sun up here!


And there is this wonderful new Ruthy-book, my first full-length historical...

AND I LOVE IT!!!!  It's available for preorder here.... and the Kindle version releases in FIVE DAYS!!!!

A beautiful love story about a business-minded man who's pretty sure he's destined to spend his life alone and he's ready to do just that--

And the school teacher who doesn't want to spend her life alone... and yet the last thing she wants is a gruff recluse of a man who reminds her of her late father...

When a five-year-old boy steps off the 9:03 train and attaches himself to Seb Ward, the stakes change instantly. To save his mother's reputation, Seb's forced to take his illegitimate brother under his wing and Rachel Eichas is enchanted by her new student... and maybe a little enchanted with Seb Ward himself.