Life is just a bowl of cherry pie
Friday, June 3, 2011 If you’ve been to the produce section of your grocery store in the last week, you’re sure to have noticed this year’s crop of fresh cherries. June is prime season for these tiny orbs and there are lots of ways to enjoy them, including simply popping them into your mouth as a sweet treat.
Cherry pie has long been a favorite in my family, though we often make it at Christmas with canned cherries rather than fresh. Making a pie with fresh fruit is daunting if you’re short on time – pitting cherries is a time-consuming task, though it is well-worth the effort.
We had many fruit trees on my family’s property when I was growing up; green apples, figs, peaches and cherries made sweet fillings for my mother’s pies from June to October, but it was her cherry pie that I remember most. With only one tree, it was difficult to beat the birds to enough cherries for a filling, and I suppose that made this pie's sweetness all the more special to me.
Tart cherries are what grow most in the South, if at all: Cherries need a more temperate climate than Southern summers allow. The tart cooking and canning cherries we buy in cans mostly come from orchards in Michigan and New York; those dark, ruby red cherries in the market right now are part of the major commercial production of the fruit in California, Oregon and Washington state and are most likely Burlat or Bing cherries.
Fruit pie fillings are among the easiest to make; they require little more than sugar and a thickener – in the South, that’s usually flour – with a bit of butter dabbed on top of the fruit before it’s covered with a double crust (fruit pies and cobblers are rarely single crust pies, though it is not unheard of).
Flour or cornstarch is used for thickening fruit pie fillings (arrowroot and potato starch are often seen in some older recipes as well). I never used cornstarch as a thickener until I moved to New England, where in my experience it is always used rather than flour.
For flour-thickened fillings, the fruit is prepared and the flour and sugar are mixed together, then mixed with the fruit until the mixture is syrupy and almost completely dissolved. The fruit filling is poured into a pie shell, dotted with butter, covered with a second crust and baked. This makes a rich, syrup-like juice and leaves the fruit a bit firm.
Cornstarch is a bit more complicated, since it has to be cooked to thicken. The sugar in the recipe is mixed with the cornstarch (usually about three tablespoons to one cup of sugar) and a portion of liquid – usually juice from the fruit (if there is no juice, water is used). The mixture is brought to a boil and cooked until translucent. The fruit can be added during cooking, or just after the cornstarch mixture has thickened, depending on how soft the fruit is (apples, for instance, should be cooked since they are firmer than stone fruits). The mixture is poured into a pie shell, dotted with butter, covered with crust and baked. Cornstarch-thickened fillings will have translucent syrup that is firmer than a flour-thickened filling.
A reminder: Join me Saturday, June 4, at Cook's Warehouse Midtown for a class on classic dessert making! we'll explore lemon fruit tarts, fruit coulis, granita and more.
Fresh Cherry Pie
Yield: one pie
Use a hand-held cherry pitter to pit fresh cherries for this pie; you can find pitters at any good kitchen supple store, such as Cook’s Warehouse in Atlanta.
Pie pastry, enough for two 8-inch crusts
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup water
4 to 4 ½ cups fresh cherries, washed, stemmed and pitted
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Egg wash (see below)
Sprinkling sugar (optional)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a large sauce pot, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar; add the water and cook over high heat until the mixture begins to boil. Add the fresh cherries and continue to cook until the cherries begin to soften and lose their juice – about five minutes. Cook until the starch begins to thicken and is translucent.
Pour the filling into the prepared crust. Brush the edges with egg wash for sealing, then cover with the second crust and pinch to seal by rolling the crusts together, then flattening with your fingers to create a lip all the way around the edge of the pie. Pinch the lip together using your thumbs and forefinger. Place the pie in the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove the pie after cooling and brush the surface with a light coating of egg wash, then sprinkle with sugar if desired. Pierce the top crust with a knife to create vent holes.
Bake the pie at 400 degrees for five minutes to brown the crust, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue baking until the filling begins to bubble, about 20 minutes.
Egg Wash:
In a small bowl, whisk together about ½ cup water with one large egg and a pinch of salt. Use to seal and coat pastries.
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