Cherry Pie

Well, summer is fast approaching and it is time to clear out the freezer. So, we are defrosting our frozen sour cherries to make room for the new season.

For a classic Cherry Pie made with fresh or frozen sour cherries you need to make a lattice top.

We are very fortunate in Southern Ontario to be in a soft fruit area. At the local grocery store we can purchase pails of pitted sour cherries that are mixed with only 10% sugar. I freeze them in 3 cup portions, ready for the next pie.

There is no commercial pie filling that can compare!

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Serves	8
Inspiration	Springridge Farm

Ingredients

3 Cups frozen sour cherries (thawed)
2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 Tsp salt
Crisco recipe for 9 (or your favourite pastry)
6 Tbsp white sugar
2 Tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp butter

Directions


Drain cherries, reserving juice. Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in sauce pan; blend in cherry juice. Stir over direct heat until thick and clear.

Remove from heat and stir in butter, lemon and cherries. Cool.

Pour into pastry-lined pie plate. Cover with lattice top. To make the lattice, roll out the pastry and cut strips about 3/4 " wide. Lay one strip one way across the pie and then alternate, lifting to make a lattice work. Flute the edges. Dab the top with milk or cream. Sprinkle with 1 tsp white sugar.

Bake at 400 °F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 °F for about 30 minutes or until pie is starting to bubble through the slits.

Crisco Pastry

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Serves

enough for a double-crust pie

Ingredients

2 Cups all purpose flour
1/4 Tsp salt
1 cup Crisco shortening
4 Tbsp water

Directions


Measure the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the shortening and cut it in using a pastry cutter or two knive cutting together until the flour/shortening mixture resembles pea sized pieces

Mix in the water and stir with a fork, just until all the ingredients are clinging together. Do not over mix or the pastry will be tough.

Flour the top of your counter and around the sides of your rolling pin. Draw together about 1/2 of the pastry mixture and liberally sprinkle with flour. Pat into a circle about an inch thick and then roll it out to about 1/4 of an inch thick.

At this stage, you can either cut the dough into circles to fit into tart tins or use this half of the recipe to fill the bottom of a 8 - 10 inch pie plate. If you are making tarts, you can probably re-roll the scraps one or two more times and then the remaining pastry will be too tough to work with. Repeat with the second half of the pastry.

Pastry needs to be baked at a high temperature (400 deg F) for at least 10 minutes for pies that are then reduced to about 350 deg F until the filling is cooked or for tarts you may continue to cook at 400 deg F for about another 5 minutes to cook the centre and finish the cooking of the pastry.