The Undomesticated Cook Cooperation: Cherry Pie am America (And You Can Too!)

I made a cherry pie this past 4th of July. I know I should have made it for the holiday, for patriotic reasons (I personally think cherry pie looks more American than apple... what kind of tree did George Washington chop down again?), etc. but to say I did would be a lie.

Hehe...

ahem.

yeah.

The real reason I made cherry pie this past 4th of July is because my sister loves it (she was leaving for New Zealand in a couple of days), I was in the mood to try O'Connor's pie crust recipe, I hadn't baked in a while, and I wanted a summery pie. I decided to use fresh cherries because a bag I had bought wasn't sweet enough to eat out of hand. Never having used fresh cherries in a pie before this would be an adventure in whether or not the flavor was worth the pitting and the price.

I used a filling recipe from epicurious.com for cherry turnovers in combination with the "Perfect Pie Crust" recipe from "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey." I won't put either recipe here, but the link for the filling is above and here are some general things to keep in mind and look for in a crust recipe:

1. Using butter and another kind of fat. Butter gives you a really lovely taste, but can sometimes make the crust hard and difficult to work with. Lard gives a really flaky crust, but you sometimes get a leftover animal-fat flavor (good for fall pies). Crisco is easy to handle but is somewhat flavorless. Usually I do a combo of Crisco and butter, but O'Connor uses solid coconut oil and butter. The flavor for this is fantastic, and fits well with summer.

Also - any crust with butter: keep in mind that it will try to fall over the dish in the oven. It kind of creeps out of the dish like a delicious avalanche. Put a baking sheet under the pie plate while cooking it or risk a very smoky oven.

2. Acid or egg. O'Connor uses both, and these create a kind of tenderizing safeguard for if you work the dough too much.

3. Freezing the fat. Always do this, or at least have everything very cold. I usually cut the butter/Crisco/coconut oil/lard into 1/4 in squares and stick them in the freezer for 30 minutes.

4. Cream. The only thing I changed about O'Connor's crust recipe was to use cream instead of water to bring the dough together. I like the flavor that cream lends to a crust, and it's a family thing. Do not add the acid to the cream until the last second! Otherwise, the cream will curdle.

5. Do not overwork the dough! Ever! My favorite method is with a food processor. First blend the dry ingredients. Then pulse in the fat until you get a sandy meal as the texture. Then add the cream/acid, just pulsing until everything comes together. Then refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.

There you go. Some crust tips in a nutshell.

Overall results for the pie: I'm a huge fan of the crust, but I think there are some times when the slight coconut flavor wouldn't work. (Ex: mincemeat pie, apple pie, etc) The filling was a little runny, but I should have expected that with a turnover recipe (also, Sarah cut the pie right after it came out of the oven). You could taste the difference between the fresh and canned cherries. These had a brighter, less fake-syrupy taste. I like it, but I think I could be saved a lot of trouble by just using frozen cherries and making my own syrup.