Cherry
pie is my favorite. I love cool cream
pies in the summer, enjoy a slice of pumpkin around the holidays and indulge in
my sister-in-laws boysenberry pies with abandon. But cherry is my favorite. Each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas my
mom would make two cherry pies. In my
heart, I always felt one was for me and the other was for the rest of the family
to share. I feel she told me that on
more than one occasion but that opens a can of worms not intended here. Not only were my mother’s pies delectable
but the effort she put into her lattice top made them a work of art in my mind.
So,
imagine my delight when, on a recent trip to Door County, Wisconsin I
discovered myself in the cherry capitol of the world. Cherry pie for dessert, a standard with the
world famous fish boil at the White Gull Inn, cherry strudel, and the
Blacksmith Inn’s legendary oatmeal cherry cookies. All were delicious but the real treasure is
the quarts of jarred cherries I brought home to use in the cherry pies we will
make for our Pie Festival this year, a tradition at Southmoreland on the Plaza
going on 13 years. Lovingly packed and
painfully lugged in my suitcase these jewels will be thickened, spiced, poured
into a pastry shell and topped with the not so perfect lattice I attempt to
replicate each year. My mouth is
watering just thinking about it.
Cherry
Pie
Ingredients:2 9-inch Pie shells
2 cans Red tart cherries, pitted
1 ½ c Sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon
4 Tbs. Cornstarch
1 Tbs. Butter
1 tsp. Almond Extract
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400
degrees. Drain cherry juice into a
saucepan. In a separate bowl, combine
sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch and add to the juice. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly,
stirring constantly. Remove from
heat. Add cherries, butter and almond
extract. Place one pastry sheet on the
bottom of a 9-inch pie pan. Pour in the
cherry mixture. Cut the remaining pastry
into thin strips (approximately ½ inch wide) and place on top of pie forming a
lattice. Crimp edges. Bake for 45-55 minutes until crust is golden
and filling begins to bubble. If edges
start to brown too quickly, place strips of aluminum foil around the perimeter
of the pie to cover the crimped edges.
For more pie
recipes order Tried and True-Southmoreland on the Plaza’s Recipe by Request.
Mark Reichle and Nancy Miller
Southmoreland on the Plaza
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