Flaky and gooey tart cherry pie (modified from NYT Cooking Twice-Baked Sour Cherry Pie)
My friend Martha Nolin adapted Melissa Clark's Twice-Baked Sour Cherry Pie. She used fresh Michigan tart cherries, added almond flavoring, and played with the upper crust. The result is a flaky and gooey treat of the season.
Ingredients
- 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flower plus two tablespoons and more for rolling out dough
- 3/8 tsp kosher salt
- 15 tbsps unsalted butter chilled and cut into pieces
- 1 cup sugar
- 2-3 tbsps instant tapioca
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp almond flavoring
- 2 lbs tart cherries about 6 cups; rinsed and pitted
- 1 tbsp kirsch or brandy
- 1 tsp Demerara sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Make dough: in bowl of a food processor pulse together flour and salt just to combine. Add butter and pulse until chickpea-size pieces form. Add 3 to 6 tablespoons ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until mixture just comes together. Separate dough into 2 disks, one using 2/3 dough, the other using the remaining. Wrap disks in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour (and up to 3 days) before rolling out and baking.
- Bake bottom crust: Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place larger dough disk on a lightly floured surface and roll into a 12-inch circle, about 3/8-inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate. Line dough with foil and weigh it down with pie weights. Bake until crust is light golden brown, about 30 minutes.
- While pie crust is baking, prepare filling. In bowl of a food processor, combine sugar, tapioca, cinnamon, and almond flavoring (use more tapioca if you prefer a thicker, more solid filling, and less if you like a looser, juicier filling). Run the motor until tapioca is finely ground. Place cherries in a bowl and add sugar and tapioca mixture. Drizzle in kirsch or brandy and toss gently to combine.
- Fill pie with tart cheery filling: When pie crust is ready, transfer it to a wire rack to cool slightly and reduce heat to 375 degrees. Remove foil and weights. Scrape cherry filling into pie crust.
- Make upper crust: Place smaller disk of dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it 3/8-inch thick. Use a star-shaped cookie cutter (or other shapes of your choice) to cut out dough for upper crust. Arrange circles on top of cherry filling in a pattern of your choice.
- Bake the pie: Brush top crust with cream and sprinkle generously with Demerara sugar. Bake until crust is dark golden brown and filling begins to bubble, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool for at least 2 hours, allowing filling to set before serving.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!