Cherry Pie

 

Sometimes the simplest recipes are also the tastiest.  With only four ingredients, this cherry pie filling is sensational.  Cherries have been on sale recently, and they looked so good, I couldn't pass them up.  With a bag full of cherries at my disposal, I immediately went to this recipe.

The most tedious part was removing the pits from all the cherries.  But once that was done, the rest of it was easy as pie.  Literally!  I changed a couple things on the card by making my own pie crust and I used tapioca flour as the thickening agent.  I also went with a lattice top crust because I am a sucker for that presentation.

The pie was absolutely delicious.  The limited ingredients really allowed for the cherries to shine.  They were tart, perfectly balanced by the sweetness of the sugar.  It was like canned cherry pie filling only 100 times better (I did the math).  This is what pie is supposed to be. 

Cherry Pie
Printable Recipe

Pie Crust Mix
2 1/2 cups sour, pitted cherries (fresh or canned)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour (or tapioca)
1/8 teaspoon salt

Mix cherries with sugar, flour and salt. If using canned cherries, drain the juice and decrease sugar to 1/3 cup. Pour over unbaked pastry, top with another pastry, bake in hot oven (425) until crust is browned and filling cooked. (About 35 minutes). Be sure to poke holes on top of pastry before baking.

Quick Cherry Crunch

I don't have a lot of recipes that call for cherries, so when I saw this recipe, it moved to the top of my list of things to try.  I am a big fan of cobblers, crunches, crisps, and the like.  Pretty much anything with fruit on the bottom and a sweet topping ranks high on my dessert scale.  This recipe also calls for quick-cooking tapioca, an ingredient I have only before used in Nonna's apple pie, so it is nice to have another application in which to use that ingredient.

Something else that drew me to this recipe is that it looked so simple, and I always like to have deliciously simple dessert recipes at my disposal.  Indeed, it was as simple as it looked and the "quick" in the name was not false advertising.  In no time at all, I had the cherry crunch in the oven and soon the house smelled of sweet oats and cherries.

After taking it out of the oven, I let it cool a bit and then I dug in.  The "crunch" in the name was not false advertising either.  There was a nice sweet crunch on top complimented by the slightly sour soft cherries.  A simple dessert with a lot of flavor.  It could stand to use more cherries, though, in my opinion.  Next time I make it, I may add three cups of cherries.  The way it was, it was kind of like a gooey granola bar, which isn't really a bad thing.  Overall, it is a very tasty dessert.

Quick Cherry Crunch

Printable Recipe

Mix and let stand:

1/2 cup cherry juice

1 1/2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

Melt in large pan:

1/2 cup butter

Mix with it:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1 cup oatmeal

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Put half of the mixture in 9 inch square pan. 

Scatter over it:

2 cups sour pitted red cherries and then the tapioca mixture.  Cover with remaining pastry.
Bake 30-35 minutes, until browned.