Fresh Cherry Pie – Picking, Pitting, and Baking – Oh My!

I have made a deal with myself this year.  Since I have have the time this year I would spend time trying to do as much as I have wished to in the past, but didn’t have the time to.  One of the things that I have always wanted to do, but haven’t had time to has been to take advantage of the various fruit I have growing around this place.

Fruit Trees – Nature or Nurture?

I’m a country girl by nature, a city one by nurture.  What that means is that I was born and raised in the big city, but that my roots, my family were born and raised on the farm.  If you have spent much time on the east coast of the United States, in the New York/New Jersey area, in Italian neighborhoods, you might see the conundrum.  In the places I grew up there were plenty of buildings of all shapes and sizes, and it seemed that every square inch of dirt that could be found around those buildings had something growing in them.  Not weeds, mind you, tomatoes and grapes and cucumbers and basil and string beans and … if it belonged in an Italian dish, this city girl has probably seen it grow from at least one crack in the sidewalk somewhere.

I’m thinking that sort of subliminal gardening has an effect on a person. That somehow my family’s example, although I didn’t participate much in gardening myself, seemed to grow on to me much like the seeds that they once grew.  It might have surprised some that I ended up with fruit trees, and the want to use the fruit from those trees in a tasty dish or two.

So I Found Some Time – Cherry Pie!

Being only a gardener by nature, means basically there was no training involved, so my timing around when things grow or ripen or whatever really has come over time, or as I notice while taking lucky walks, so when I saw those red things in the tree I knew it was time to try for pie.

Usually I would just go sit under the tree and eat till I was full, this time I grabbed a few bags and started picking.  I had no idea how to pit or even how many cherries went into a pie.  So I thought two half bags would do, maybe I would freeze the rest.

Pitting – All you need is a chopstick!

I didn’t really have much of though for pitting, or how long it would take.  I had thoughts of cutting the cherries in half or just getting the little pits free with my fingers, but a call to a friend of mine saved the day.  She asked me if I had a chopstick around the house and just use them to push the pit out the other side.  It worked!

You can use your fingers.  I did for some, and with just fingers breaking the cherry in half and pushing the pit out allowed me to capture much of the juice.  The chopstick version worked even faster.  After stemming the cherry, just push in the chopstick from the opposite side from the stem and just push out the pit.  The cherry keeps its shape and the pit is removed.

The Recipe – What is a cup o’cherries?

As usual I did a little hunting to look how people made fresh cherry pie out on the Internet.  It seems like the recipe is pretty much an old standard.  Here is the one I used:

• Pie crust in pie pan (my other half makes these wonderfully with Crisco… if you are going to make a fresh cherry pie, picking, pitting, etc, you may as well go all the way.)
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3/4 cup of sugar (for bing cherries, 1 1/4 cups for sour cherries)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (you may want to half this, I like the flavor so I add a little bit more)
• 5 cups of pitted cherries

Add all ingredients (except for the pie crust) into a bowl and mix well.  Let sit for about 15 minutes.  Mix again and add to crust. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit.

Make sure you have enough cherries!

Call me measurement-challenged, but I thought a cup of cherries was just filling that measuring cup up to the top loosely with cherries.  Well, it wasn’t.  A cup of cherries measured that way means you will need twice that amount.  So if you measure your cherries loosely to keep the shape of the cherries you will actually need 10 cups of cherries to fit the crust nicely.

Was it worth it?

You bet! Wow!  I think I have a new favorite pie now.

Next time cherry wine!