Presidential Cherry Pie
Presidential Cherry Pie
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| Yield: | 9" pie, 8 to 10 servings |
Ingredients
- One prepared double pie crust or your favorite recipe or
- 5 to 6 cups sour cherries, packed in water or individually quick frozen
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca or 1/2 cup Pie Filling Enhancer
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, optional
Directions
1) Divide the dough in half, and roll one half into a 13" circle. Transfer the circle to a 9" pie pan.
2) Drain the cans of cherries, reserving 2/3 cup of water from one of them. Place the cherries and reserved liquid in a large mixing bowl.
3) Combine the sugar, cinnamon, and tapioca or Pie Filling Enhancer. Stir this into the cherries until everything is evenly combined.
4) Stir in the almond extract and salt. If you're using tapioca, let the filling sit for 20 minutes before using it to fill the pie shell.
5) Spoon the filling into the pastry-lined pan, and dot with butter, if desired.
6) Roll out the second crust and place it on top of the filling. Cut a design (two cherries? a hatchet?) into the top to vent steam, and squeeze/seal the top and bottom crusts together, fluting with your fingers or a fork. You may also choose to make a woven lattice crust.
7) Place the pie on a parchment-lined (to catch any spills) baking sheet, and bake in a preheated 425°F oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling.
8) Remove the pie from the oven, and cool it on a rack before slicing, so the filling can set.
Reviews
03/24/2012- @Sarah. Drain cherries well, reserve just 1/2 c juice. Mix dry ingredients and add to wet; let sit 15 minutes before pouring into crust (add addt'l 1-2 tsp pie enhancer if needed). We prefer a tart not jammy cherry pie so if using sour canned, add 2 tsp lemon juice and if using defrosted frozen sweet cherries then 3 T lemon juice. Adding cherry concentrate ~ 2T will give it a WOW factor. Recommend placing pie on lowest rack setting on a baking stone. I bake at 425F for 15 minutes then another 45-55 min at 375F. Husband requests cherry pie at least 1x month for last 3 years....
03/15/2012- I need some help! I've made this pie twice, the first time following the directions exactly and the second time adding a little cornstarch to the filling. both times it has come out looking great, but when i cut into it, the filling has not set at all. I let it cool completely before cutting, but it still super runny, and the bottom crust is so soggy that i cant get a piece out intact. any suggestions? or different cherry pie recipes i can try? i love cherry pie, but this is disappointing.
My suggestion is to cook the filling ahead of time and let it cool before putting it into the crust. Also, try pre baking the crust for 20 minutes. I know this seems way more labor intensive but I think your pie will come out the way you'd like. Betsy
07/18/2011- This is the cherry pie of my dreams - a little (or, if you're lucky, big) slice of heaven. To make it even better, take the cherry juice and boil it down - I used two, 2-lb bags of frozen cherries, thawed completely, which gave about 7.5 cups of fruit and 4 cups of juice. I boiled the juice down to about 1.75 cups, so it is very intense but not syrupy. I then mixed all the fruit, 1 c of juice, 1 c of sugar, 1.5 t. almond extract, and a mixture of 1/3 c. Clear Jel and 1/3 c. sugar for a 9" deep dish pie or a 10" regular pie. I didn't use the cinnamon, as I'm a purist when it comes to cherry pie. (BTW, I keep the Clear Jel mixed with sugar so I don't forget and just dump it in with the fruit, creating ugly gobs of thickener.) The best part is that you can see how thick the filling will be before you bake the pie - let it sit for about 5 minutes after you stir it up, and add more liquid or thickener as needed. The other best part (too good to rate as "second best") is that you have leftover cherry juice, which is great mixed with seltzer on a hot summer day!
- 06/27/2011
- Sour cherries are in season here and they were so plentiful that we picked quite a few so I decided to try making a pie. I used the KAF recipe for the filling and Mom's tried and true recipe for the crust. WOW! Take a look . . .
http://community.kingarthurflour.com/content/presidential-cherry-pie
Wow, I am, jealous that you have a place to pick fresh sour cherries (my all-time favorite pie fruit). The pie looks amazing, thank you for sharing with us. ~Amy
- 05/26/2011
- This was the best cherry pie I have ever made! p.s. The "pie enhancer" is awesome.
- 03/15/2011
- I thought it tasted even better the second day, after being in the fridge overnight. I used frozen sour cherries.
03/07/2011- Blech!! Canned cherries!! Did not like at all. I've come to the conclusion that cherry pie should only be made with either frozen cherries or cherries picked off the tree. Canned cherries aren't even red--they're a yucky shade of brown-mauve. Not appetizing at all.
We're not lucky enough to live in an area with an abundance of fresh cherries, hence this recipe suggests canned, frozen or bottled sour cherries. We hope our presidential bakers out there find one that meets their appearance and taste expectations. Thanks for sharing your review! Irene @ KAF
- 02/22/2011
- You can get beautiful dark cherries, frozen at Costco in the frozen foods section. They have great frozen peaches too.
- 04/17/2010
- Okay, this recipe officially gets my stamp of approval. My "not a dessert person" husband had 2 slices when I served it. I've never seen him have seconds on dessert before! I had to wrap up the rest and hide it so there'd be some left for my dad. The most challenging thing about this recipe was finding the right cherries. None of the stores in my area carried the right kind. I ended up ordering them from Amazon of all places. I didn't have any pie filling enhancer handy, so I just used the clearjel. Worked beautifully! I couldn't believe how nicely the pie set up, and it was very easy to slice.
- 01/09/2010
- This recipe is cherry pie at it's best! First, I used IQF cherries. A little scary to me because I had not used them before. For any novices out there, let me tell you that with IQF cherries, all of that wonderful juice is contained within the cherry. Also, a bag of frozen cherries contains approximately 8 c. of cherries. No problem--use the 8 c. and make some minor adjustments in the other ingredients as I did. Another "plus" of using the frozen cherries is their beautiful bright red color. So, for preparation, thaw the frozen cherries on the counter for approximately 7-8 hrs. Overnight would be perfect. It seemed like they would never give up their juice, but at the 8 hr. point, I had about 1 c. of juice, which is more than the recipe calls for. That's o.k. too. If you're using 8 c. of cherries, you can use the full 1 c. of juice as I did. You will just adjust the proportions of your other ingredients --with perfect results. I kept the sugar to just 3/4 c. --all of my "testers" agreed it was the perfect amount. I actually didn't use the cinnamon, just a personal preference. But if I would have, I would increase this to 1 tsp. because you have extra cherries and juice. I used 1/2c. + 1 tbsp. of KA Pie Filling Enhancer (won't use anything else because it too, produces perfect results in both thickening and texture). I used 1 1/4 tsp. of almond extract and 1/2 tsp. of salt. I would have used the 2 tbsp. of butter if I had remembered. But with all the tweaking I was doing, it was an oversight. That's it! Oh, be sure to use a 10" pie plate. Cool thoroughly to let the filling set up (as the recipe advises). After cooling, if you want to serve warm pie with ice cream, just 20 seconds in the microwave should do it.
