Can she bake a Cherry Pie? Why yes she can!

In early July it's cherry picking season at Bohringer farm up here in the Catskills. This year we picked 35 pounds of cherries because we incorporate cherries into our breakfasts at Catskill Maison Bed and Breakfast. Though 35 lbs of raw cherries shrink to about 10 lbs of cooked cherries, it's still too many cherries to store at the B&B so I decided to make jam and jelly and cherry sauce (a blog on that later)...but my father kept hinting (okay so his hints are the equivalent of knocking you over the head with a brick to get your attention) at wanting a cherry pie.

So one Saturday evening a couple of weeks ago, he came home from golfing, and to his surprise his request was answered. A piping hot, fresh out of the oven cherry pie was on the counter in our kitchen.

Cherries extract a lot of water, so it's best to cook them down before adding them to the base of a pie because you will get very runny and watery pie even if you add cornstarch or flour. Some recipes call for tapioca flour, but the pearls are hard and rubbery so not my favorite and it's an extra step to grind them down.

You can make crust from scratch or buy the prepared crust in the freezer section of the grocery store. Blind bake your bottom pie crust in the pie pan with pie weights on the crust (or some beans on parchment paper) for 10-15 minutes before you add the filling because if you don't the bottom crust will get soggy.

Put your cherries in a pot and cook for about 7 minutes and drain all of the liquid (or keep the liquid to make jelly or sauce in the future like I do). Then add sugar to taste (maybe a cup or so), a tsp of nutmeg, 1/2 tsp of ginger and a pinch of clove. Finally add 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Combine all ingredients and pour into your par baked pie shell. Cover with the second crust but don't forget to make holes in the crust so steam can escape. Then bake for 50-55 minutes (until crust is golden) at 350 degrees F.

Let pie cool slightly and serve with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.