Cherry Pie
A few days ago, it was my dad's birthday. And what is his favorate dessert, you ask? Why, it's Cherry Pie!
I wasn't planning on making cherry pie, or any pie for that matter, at first. For breakfast, I was going to have cherries. And y'all know how I like to pit them before I eat them. So there I was, just pitting my cherries, and my dad walks in. He was like, "What are you doing?" and I was like, "Pitting cherries." and he was like "Okay.". It was a very riveting conversation, I know.
Later that day, I was pitting cherries for the blog post and I had a great idea! I have a lot of those (so humble, right?). I should make pie for my dad's birthday! So I found a recipe, got out four cups of cherries, and got to work!
This pie is really good. And it's pretty simple, too. I think that this was my first time making everything completely from scratch. I've made the crust before, but since I only have a little food processor and didn't divide the ingredients correctly, it never really worked out. This time, though, everything was good!
To start, I made the crust. I didn't take any pictures of the actual making-the-crust process, though, so you'll just have to bear with me. I measured out all of the dry ingredients, and divided it into three smaller bowls evenly. Then I did the same for the butter and Crisco. Funny story, I didn't read the recipe very carefully when I was getting out the butter, so instead of 1 1/2 sticks of butter, I got out three! Hahaha, I know. It's totally hilarious, right? Right. But luckily for me, I caught the mistake before I diced them. Yay Elissa! So anyways, back to the process. I divided it evenly into three, and then put 1/3 of the flour (1 divided part) into the bowl of the food processor and pulsed it just to mix. Then put in the cold butter and Crisco and pulse until there are little bits of fat (Ina says 8-12 times, it worked for me). Then stream in 2-3 tablespoons (I did 2) of cold water and pulse until it forms a ball. I didn't want to get out the streamy part of the food processor (read: I didn't know how to work it) so I just poured it in then blended. It worked fine. Repeat that for the other two thirds. Then, combine the three balls and refrigerate the whole ball of dough. It said for 30 minutes, but when I took it out after 30 minutes, it was still soft, so I left it in for 30 more minutes. It was still soft after that, too, though, so I'm not really sure what was going on with that. Once it was rolled out, it seemed to work.
Once you have the crust refrigerating, you can start on the cherries!
First, pit 4 cups of cherries.
Then, put them in a pot (without anything else) and cook them until some juice comes out. Okay, more than some. The recipe said "a considerable amount" but I wasn't really sure what a considerable amount was, so just cook it until it looks alright. You'll be cooking it more later, so I personally don't think that it matters if you have a bit more or less than a considerable amount. The recipe said that they should be covered when you are doing this, but I didn't see that part so I didn't do it. I did stir pretty much continuously, though.
Once you have some juice out, take the cherries off the heat and add in the sugar and cornstarch. Mix that up, and return it to the heat.
Leave it on the heat, stirring frequently, until the cherries thicken. Again, I wasn't sure what "thickened" was, so I heated it until it looked good. I figured that it thickens as it cools, too, so I would be safe.
Now that you have the cherries cooked, you can start assembling! Get the crust out of the fridge, divide it in half, and roll one half of it out. Make sure to use lots of flour, as it was very sticky.
That's your bottom crust. Put it in the pan like so.
Once it's in the pie plate, you can add the cherries. If they aren't cooled, you'll want to let them cool before you add them. Put some butter on top, so it's really good!
I had some space between the top of the cherries and the top of the plate, and I'm not sure if that's how it was supposed to be. I'm guessing probably not, but it seemed to work out fine.
Add the top crust however you want and then bake it! For my top, I made a lattice-type crust. It's not a real lattice crust, though, since that would require me to lift up and put down each piece of crust and I don't think that I'm that talented. I just laid one strip vertically, one horizontally, so on and so forth, until it was covered to my liking. Do whatever makes you happy! Sprinkle some sugar on top and bake it for 50ish minutes. Tada!
Go eat some pie!
Recipes:
Ina Garten's Pie Crust
Cherry Pie Filling a la Just Pies
I wasn't planning on making cherry pie, or any pie for that matter, at first. For breakfast, I was going to have cherries. And y'all know how I like to pit them before I eat them. So there I was, just pitting my cherries, and my dad walks in. He was like, "What are you doing?" and I was like, "Pitting cherries." and he was like "Okay.". It was a very riveting conversation, I know.
Later that day, I was pitting cherries for the blog post and I had a great idea! I have a lot of those (so humble, right?). I should make pie for my dad's birthday! So I found a recipe, got out four cups of cherries, and got to work!
This pie is really good. And it's pretty simple, too. I think that this was my first time making everything completely from scratch. I've made the crust before, but since I only have a little food processor and didn't divide the ingredients correctly, it never really worked out. This time, though, everything was good!
To start, I made the crust. I didn't take any pictures of the actual making-the-crust process, though, so you'll just have to bear with me. I measured out all of the dry ingredients, and divided it into three smaller bowls evenly. Then I did the same for the butter and Crisco. Funny story, I didn't read the recipe very carefully when I was getting out the butter, so instead of 1 1/2 sticks of butter, I got out three! Hahaha, I know. It's totally hilarious, right? Right. But luckily for me, I caught the mistake before I diced them. Yay Elissa! So anyways, back to the process. I divided it evenly into three, and then put 1/3 of the flour (1 divided part) into the bowl of the food processor and pulsed it just to mix. Then put in the cold butter and Crisco and pulse until there are little bits of fat (Ina says 8-12 times, it worked for me). Then stream in 2-3 tablespoons (I did 2) of cold water and pulse until it forms a ball. I didn't want to get out the streamy part of the food processor (read: I didn't know how to work it) so I just poured it in then blended. It worked fine. Repeat that for the other two thirds. Then, combine the three balls and refrigerate the whole ball of dough. It said for 30 minutes, but when I took it out after 30 minutes, it was still soft, so I left it in for 30 more minutes. It was still soft after that, too, though, so I'm not really sure what was going on with that. Once it was rolled out, it seemed to work.
Once you have the crust refrigerating, you can start on the cherries!
First, pit 4 cups of cherries.
Then, put them in a pot (without anything else) and cook them until some juice comes out. Okay, more than some. The recipe said "a considerable amount" but I wasn't really sure what a considerable amount was, so just cook it until it looks alright. You'll be cooking it more later, so I personally don't think that it matters if you have a bit more or less than a considerable amount. The recipe said that they should be covered when you are doing this, but I didn't see that part so I didn't do it. I did stir pretty much continuously, though.
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Recipes:
Ina Garten's Pie Crust
Cherry Pie Filling a la Just Pies
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