Sweet Treat Tuesday- Homemade Cherry Pie

Oh this was so good. I mean, So. Very. Good! I love it when something I've been thinking about and dreaming about becomes a reality! I've been thinking about cherry pie for awhile now, maybe six months, but I never got around to making one. Well, I had no excuses when my dear friend gave me a whole bag of delicious looking sweet cherries. I set out on a mission to find the perfect recipe. Instead of using one recipe, I adapted this one from two different ones and added my own flare to it too. This turned out perfect. So go get some cherries and make this pie!

Homemade Cherry Pie

courtesy of This Mommy Cooks, inspired by Smitten Kitchen and Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

4 cups pitted fresh cherries

4 tablespoons tapioca starch

3/4 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits

1 tablespoon milk

sugar for sprinkling

2 prepared pie crusts, Flaky Pie Crust found here

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Stir together the cherries, tapioca starch, sugar, salt, lemon juice, and vanilla extract gently together in a large bowl.

Roll out half of chilled dough on a floured work surface to 13-inch round. Gently place it in 9-inch pie plate. Trim edges to a half-inch overhang.

Spoon filling into pie crust, discarding most of the liquid that has pooled in the bottom of the bowl. Dot the filling with the bits of cold butter.

Now you can do a traditional top crust with slits or a lattace crust. I chose to do a lattace crust, which is a lot easier than it looks. For the lattace, roll out the dough to about a 12 inch round  on a floured surface and cut it into 1 inch strips. Lay the strips down, weaving them through and crimping the edges with the bottom crust. Our Best Bites has a great tutorial on how to do a lattace crust.

If you choose to do a regular top crust, roll out the remaining dough into about a 12-inch round on a floured surface, drape it over the filling, and trim it, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Fold the overhang under the bottom crust, pressing the edge to seal it, and crimp the edge decoratively. Cut slits in the crust with a sharp knife, so that the steam can vent.

Brush the milk wash over over pie crust, then sprinkle with sugar.

Bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350°F. and bake the pie for an additional 25 to 30 minutes more, or until the crust is golden brown and the cherry juices are bubbling. This is very important. If the juices aren't bubbling, the starch won't bind to the juices and thicken them. I took mine out too early initially, and had a soupy pie. I put it back in and it thickened up. So if at the end of this time your juices arent bubbling, keep it in there. If the edges begin to brown faster than you'd like, put some foil around the edge. Let the pie cool on a rack for several hours. Store pie at room temperature for up to 3 days.