Homemade Cherry Pie Filling #GardenCuizine #EatCherries

Homemade Cherry Pie Filling

My family and I prefer cherry pie filling less gooey than store-bought canned fruit fillings, but not as dry as pure cherries tossed with sugar and lemon juice. Heating sugar with liquid and adding a thickening agent first makes the best cherry pie.

It takes about 4 to 6 cups of fresh pitted cherries to make a homemade cherry pie. I just took a cherry pie out of the oven made with organic tapioca starch. For the liquid I used lemonade, but you could also use cranberry juice cocktail.

Other thickening agents include cornstarch or arrowroot. Tapioca comes from the root of the tropical cassava plant and is used the same as you would cornstarch.

Ingredients

Heaping 4 cups fresh pitted cherries
1 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons tapioca starch 
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup lemonade

• Rinse fresh cherries; pit cherries (I use a handheld cherry pitter) and set aside.
• In a small bowl mix tapioca starch and cinnamon with a little lemonade to make a paste/slurry - it should be smooth, set aside. 
• In a saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and lemonade.
• When sugar is dissolved, stir in the cherries.
• Stir in the tapioca slurry to desired consistency; heat until the mixture thickens and becomes clear. Add water to thin if necessary - try not to stir too much. 
• Let sit while preparing your favorite pie dough or use as a topping on your favorite danish or dessert recipes.

Enjoy!
Related Links
Science of Food Thickening Agents
Blog post and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Homemade Cherry Pie #GardenCuizine

Cherry Pie

Homemade cherry pie tastes better than anything you can buy. Cherry pie makes a great alternative to birthday "cake" too. Cherry pie is Harry's birthday favorite. In fact, today I'm decorating a pie that I made last night for his milestone birthday celebration. Happy 70th, Harry!

Why do you think store-bought fruit pies are so inexpensive? Because the fruit is stretched with lots of sugar and cheap filling goop! More like a science project than something worth eating.

In the future we hope to harvest our own cherries. We planted two new trees this spring; one appears to have died. So who knows if we'll ever get to grow our own cherries. In the meantime, I bought some at our local farmers market.
 
Preheat oven to 400 F

Pie dough
use your favorite pie dough recipe
Filling Ingredients
6 cups sweet cherries - pitted
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons (T) instant tapioca
1 T tapioca starch
1 T key lime juice
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup water
egg wash: 1 egg whisked with splash water

Putting it all together

• When pitting cherries be sure to account for each and every pit so your guests don't get a pit
• Combine all ingredients except the water and egg wash and toss in large bowl. Stir and after 15 minutes if the cherries do not seem juicy add the 1/4 cup water. Let sit while you roll out the pie dough.
• Roll out pie dough in two 11-inch circles for 9-inch pie plate. Fit one for bottom crust into lightly sprayed pie plate
• Fill with cherry mixture
• Use a fluted cutter and cut strips of dough out of the remaining circle for lattice top crust. Press and crimp edges using fingers
• Egg wash
• Bake at 400 F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F and bake until golden brown and you see the cherry filling bubble - about 1 hour total. You may have to put foil around the edges during baking to prevent getting too dark
• Allow to fully cool before decorating if serving as birthday 'cake'!

Edible decorations shown in photo: red shiso perilla, chocolate mint, anise hyssop, pansy

GardenCuizine Nutrition data Sweet Cherries:
Good Source: dietary Fiber, Potassium and Vitamin C
1 cup pitted Sweet Cherries: 3g (13% DV) dietary Fiber, 342mg (10% DV) Potassium, 11mg (18% DV) Vitamin C
Photos and recipe Copyright (C)2014 Wind. All rights reserved.