Grandma’s Sour Cherry Pie
Here’s another one of Grandma’s recipe for you! I have posted many of her recipes since I started blogging a couple years ago because I just love her recipes.
This is Mr. Chemist’s Grandma we are talking about and she is an amazing baker. I have been making her pie crust for years now and always get lots of compliments on it, but I had never made her sour cherry pie until recently. Mostly because, unless you know someone with a sour cherry tree, you are tough out of luck to get sour cherries.
At least as far as I know. I have never seen them in a grocery store, and trust me I have looked. But there are tons of grocery stores I haven’t been in, so you never know.
But the cherries are in season right now and here in Montana it’s a good year for cherries and a friend of mine has a tree! We have been swapping stuff all summer long which has been super fun. She has a big beautiful garden and I have eggs and chèvre so I have tried to keep her in supply of cheese and whatever I have on hand and she has given me rhubarb and raspberries and all kinds of yummy stuff that she has excess of.
Bartering is so fabulous.
Sour cherry pies are the best. If you have never had one, you are totally missing out. I never had until I started dating Mr. Chemist. I went over for a family get together of some kind and until that time I had only ever had the cherry pie out of a can – which I no longer like – so the sour cherry was a bit of a shock at the time. Once I got over my shock though, I loved it, and have ever since.
Well since then, we have gotten married, moved away and had kids and I have never known anyone with a cherry tree so it’s been YEARS since we had one and when Cheryl said she had cherries we were SO excited.
So I called Grandma and got her recipe, which is from her old Betty Crocker cookbook. Those old cookbooks are invaluable, they have the best recipes. Nothing fancy, just pure simplistic deliciousness.
I did end up using brown sugar in place of granulated (because I was out of granulated at the time and we HAD to have a pie ASAP) and we liked it so much I did it the same way the second time.
FOR THE CRUST- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1¼ cup cold butter cut into cubes
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 5-6 tablespoons cold water
FOR THE FILLING - 1⅓ cups brown sugar
- 5 tablespoons flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 cups sour cherries
- 4 drops almond extract
- 1⅓ tablespoon butter, cut into small bits
- Preheat your oven to 375˚
TO MAKE THE CRUST - Mix the dry ingredients together.
- Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles course sand.
- In a small bowl combine the egg, vinegar and water. Add to the dry ingredients and blend with a pastry blender until moist.
- Divide in half and roll out one half on a lightly floured surface. Once it has reached the desired size, carefully lift one half off the counter and drape over your rolling pin. Then carefully move the whole thing over to your pie plate and place inside.
- Then roll out the top crust and slice into strips to make the lattice, set aside while you make the filling.
TO MAKE THE FILLING - In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir until mixed.
- Pour into the prepared pie crust and dot with the butter.
- Carefully weave the lattice on the top.
- Bake for about 25-30 minutes and then check the crust to make sure it is not getting to dark. If it is, place a piece of foil over the top to keep it from getting darker. Bake another 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature to serve.
- Huckleberry Plum Pie - January 1, 2017
- Fresh Mango Sorbet - July 17, 2016
- Steak Caesar Salad - June 8, 2016
