Sour Cherry Pie

A classic, flaky pastry, Sour Cherry pie with a lattice top, nothing crazy, just the perfect summer pie.

How to make flaky pie dough?

Personally I LOVE a flaky pie dough if I’m going through the effort of making it myself, so this recipe is extra flaky, think almost puff pastry kinda vibes. The key is to use cold butter, a cold bowl, and ice water and then a couple rounds of folds to create those flaky layers.

What is the best pie pan?

I know they aren’t always the prettiest but a classic metal pie pan always works the best! The heat transfers quickly to the crust helping to get a flaky, well baked, crust that doesn’t shrink back. I like this one!

Can I make this pie in advance?

Yes! This pie needs to cool for at least an hour to set up and can be stored at room temperature for at least a day or two. It’s best freshly baked but you can make the pastry a day or two before as long as it’s well wrapped in the fridge.

Tips for making a Sour Cherry Pie

• If you don’t have time to make your own pie crust I recommend using store bough puff pastry rather than pie crust. But if you can I really recommend making it yourself – this recipe is super simple, just takes a little bit of time.
• It’s ok if the dough looks rough and scraggly in the beginning. The folding, rolling, and chilling process smooths out and hydrates the dough.
• Keep everything COLD when making the pie dough, you don’t want the butter to melt into dough.
• If you can’t find fresh sour cherries, frozen or canned work too! Be sure not to use cherry pie filling as it already has a bunch of additives in it. I don’t recommend regular dark sweet cherries as they aren’t as juicy and will make a very sweet pie.
• The basis of this pie will also work with apricots, peaches or plums just make sure to cut down the sugar by about half to start with and you can always add more!
• I 100% recommend using a metal pie pan – it’ll make the best flaky pie dough and keep the crust from shrinking back. I recommend this one!
• Don’t rush the chilling times for this pie.
• To spread out the work, prep the pie dough one day, make the cherry filling the next, and then bake and serve on the following day.

Additional Recipes to try:

• Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Pie
• Sour Cherry Streusel Pastries
• Flourless Chocolate Cherry Cake

Ingredients

• All Purpose Flour: I recommend King Arthur Baking All Purpose flour for the crust.
• Sugar: White granulated sugar is used in the crust and filling and turbinado sugar is sprinkled on top.
• Fine Sea Salt: A little fine sea salt enhances the flavors and balances out the sweetness of all three elements.
• Butter: High fat, salted butter is best for this pie crust but unsalted works too!
• Ice Water: Really cold water is best for this crust, ideally ice water.
• Sour Cherries: Fresh, frozen or canned will work just make sure not to use cherry pie filling or dark sweet cherries.
• Corn Starch: A little bit of starch thickens the cherries as they bake and helps them set. Arrowroot or tapioca starch should work but I haven’t tested them.
• Heavy cream: A little heavy cream is brushed over top of the lattice to help it brown and allow the sugar to stick.

How to make a Sour Cherry Pie

Pie Dough

• Add ice into a cup of water and set aside.
• In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar with a fork.
• Thinly slice the cold butter, dropping it into the dry ingredients as you do. The slices should be between 1/8th and 1/4 of an inch thick.
• I like to use a pairing knife and cut directly off a big Kerrygold block but you can also pre slice the butter on a cutting board if you prefer. Just make sure the butter stays cold.
• Smush each slice of butter between your fingers into the dry ingredients to flatten them out and start working in the flour mixture.
• Drizzle the ice water onto the surface of everything in the bowl.
• Use a fork to mix and slightly smush the water into the mixture until it looks shaggy. It’s ok if it still looks a little dry but there shouldn’t be large amounts of completely dry flour left. Don’t be tempted to add more water.
• Pour the mixture onto a sheet of plastic wrap and use the sides of the plastic wrap to smush the dough into a square that’s between 1/2″ and 1″ thick.
• Place the dough in the fridge to chill for 45 minutes.
• After 45 minutes, dust your work surface with flour. Take the pie dough out of the fridge and roll the dough out in a rectangle that is about 1/4″ thick. Use flour and a bench scraper as needed to keep the dough moving and keep it from sticking.
• Letter fold the dough so fold the top third over the middle third, and then the bottom third over the other two thirds.
• Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll the dough back out to 1/4″ thick. Repeat the letter folds, it should be a skinny long rectangle so when you fold it you will have a square.
• Rewrap the dough and chill for another 45 minutes.
• After the 45 minutes have passed roll and fold the dough again twice. Rewrap the dough and chill for another 45 minutes.
• Divide the dough into two portions, one should weigh about 375 grams and the other about 250 grams. At this point you can chill it for as long as you need until you’re ready to use it.
• If chilling for more than 6 hours, place it in a ziptop bag to make sure it doesn’t dry out.

Cherry filling

• Rinse, stem and pit all of the cherries. Add them into a large heavy bottomed pot along with 60 grams of granulated sugar. Cook over medium low heat until bubbling and then set a timer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• After the 15 minutes, keep the cherries cooking. In a small bowl stir together the corn starch, remaining 45 grams of sugar, and enough water to make it into a milk like consistency. Stir together until fully incorporated.
• Pour the slurry into the bubbling cherries and stir immediately. You’ll notice it all thicken up – cook for another 4-5 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and pour the cherry filling onto a quarter sized baking dish or a shallow heat safe bowl. Allow it to cool completely before moving on.

Layer and Bake

• Preheat the oven to 400 F and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Roll out the larger portion of chilled dough until it is thin, between 1/8″ and 1/4″ thick.
• It should be big enough to fully line the pie pan and hang over the edge with an extra inch or two.
• Pour the cooled cherry pie filling mixture over the pie crust and place it in the fridge.
• Roll out the remaining dough portion to about 11″ x 11″ and cut it into 10 1″ strips.
• Take the pie back out of the fridge, lay 5 strips of dough evenly spaced over the cherry filling.
• Pull every other strip back to the halfway point of the pie. Lay one of the remaining strips over the strips that are still on the surface of the cherry filling.
• Lay the strips that got folded back, back down. Now pull the opposite strips back until the strip you just laid on the pie surface.
• Lay another remaining strip over the strips that are still on the pie. Lay the pulled back strips back down. Repeat until all strips are used and the surface is fully latticed.
• Bake for 45 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
• It should be deeply golden brown and the cherry filling should be bubbling. Once baked take the pie out of the oven and let it cool for at least 2 hours.
• It takes a while to fully set. If you slice it early it just won’t hold it’s shape.

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