I order a HUGE can 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 stovetop 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:
Bake at 425 degrees for about 25-35 minutes, depending on your oven.
