Cherry Pie

I should definitely learn to make a great pie crust and I’m sure this pie would be even better if I pitted a couple hundred fresh cherries but I’m a lazy baker. I enjoy the peeling, chopping, slicing, boiling, sauteing and straining that goes into making a great dinner. But when it comes to baking, I just haven’t caught the bug. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth so the payoff never seems worth the effort of making everything from scratch. Terri does have a sweet tooth though, so I make the occasional cherry pie.

I try to avoid letting big food corporations cook for me whenever possible but I compromise this rule and just buy pre-made pie crusts from the grocery. I buy two 24 oz. jars of pitted sour cherries in water and sugar rather than the pie filling you can get that has thick syrup. I drain the juice from the cherries into a sauce pan and whisk in a quarter cup of sugar and 3-4 tablespoons of cornstarch. I heat this, stirring constantly until it thickens. I like it to be fairly thick since the cherries will add some liquid as they cook and I prefer pie that stands up when sliced rather pie that is runny. I put the cherries in the bottom crust and dump the sauce over them. I cut the top crust into strips and put it together in a lattice pattern. I brush it with an egg wash and bake it at 400 degrees for about fifty minutes or until the crust is browned.

Maybe I’ll get more excited about baking someday and start making pie from scratch but for now this semi-homemade satisfies Terri’s sweet tooth and only costs me 15-20 minutes to throw together.