American Cherry Pie

Directions

Pie Crust Instructions

1. Add flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor (or blender) and pulse briefly to combine.

2. Add sour cream and butter cubes over the top the mixture and pulse until the mixture is well combined and forms chunky balls similar to a cookie dough texture. If you pinch the dough between your thumb and forefinger and it sticks together, you are ready to move on.

3. Lightly flour a clean and dry surface.

   Turn out dough onto floured surface. It may come out in several chunky pieces and that’s ok. Press all the pieces together to form a ball. Flatten ball into a round shape and roll out to a 12 inch circle. Add flour as needed to avoid dough from sticking to the counter. Arrange dough crust into a pie plate and crimp, flute or use a pie wheel for the edges. You can also fold under the extra dough and press a fork along the edge.

   I recommend using a 9 to 9 1/2 pie plate, my favorite pie plate is the cast iron Lodge 9 inch pie pan.

4. Place dough in refrigerator to chill for at least 30-45 minutes and prep the pie filling.

Pie Filling

1. Soak cherries in one part water, one part vinegar for about 15 minutes.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together baking sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.

3. Add sour cream, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract.

   Stir filling well until completely combined and sugars are dissolved.

   The mixture will be a soft paste.

4. Combine cherries with filling paste

5. Rinse cherries thoroughly and pit. I use a multi-pitter tool that can do 6 cherries at a time but a single cherry pitter works well.

6. Once pitted, use your thumbs and forefingers to split the cherries in a variety of halves and quarters. This is a great way to double check all the pits have been removed. I almost always catch one or two pits that slipped by the pitter.

   You may chop the cherries into a variety of sizes, but I prefer to use my hands for a more authentic handmade texture.

7. Remove pie crust from refrigerator.

   Pour cherry filling into the pie crust

Crumble Topping

1. Combine flour and brown sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine.

2. Add cubed butter pieces over the top of the mixture and pulse until coarse crumbs form about the size of chocolate chips or slightly smaller.

3. Add walnuts and pulse. If you prefer chunkier pieces of walnuts, pulse very briefly. If you prefer finely chopped walnuts, pulse slightly longer but be mindful not to overdo it because the mixture will loose it’s “crumbliness” and clump together. If that happens, you can use your hands to help break it up or I press in the clumpy pieces around the outer rim of the pie topping alongside the inside edge of the crust.

4. Sprinkle crumble topping evenly over the pie filling and gently pat down

Bake

1. Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes.

   Without opening the door, reduce heat to 350 F and continue to bake another 20-40 minutes. I say 20-40 because when I bake in my cast iron pie pan, it tends to take about 30-40. Whereas, when I bake in a ceramic pie plate, it tends to take 25-35 minutes.

   I baking in a ceramic pie plate, I recommend using pie crust shields when adjusting the baking temperature. Alternatively you may use foil to cover the crust should you notice the crust is becoming too dark.

2. Top with vanilla ice cream & enjoy!