Baking Friday - Pie # 2

Happy Valentine's Day!

It is already afternoon, and I'm just now getting around to posting this Baking Friday, so I'm obviously having a bit of a lazy Valentine's with my honey.  Just finished some homemade pancakes with sausage and chocolate raspberry coffee (for G...I had chocolate milk!  Woo-hoo!)  And we sent off silly little Valentine cards to each of the kids and grand kids (though they might not get them until tomorrow since we mailed yesterday!) that simply say "Roses are red, Violets are blue, Here's a little reminder that We love you!)  Yes, I know.  The poetry is just so awe inspiring, isn't it?  Do try to contain your gushing praise over it.  We like to remain humble, after all.  Hope this finds each of you feeling loved and appreciated and valentine'd today!  Here's a couple of hugs and kisses from me!

So I told you last week that since I'd already done a Valentine pie that I wasn't going to feature another Valentine pie today.  And since I will have one more pie Friday before St. Patrick's Day, what holiday pie am I doing today?

Well, Monday is President's Day, and what is more traditional and presidential than cherry pie?  I am just old enough that when I was in school we were taught that George Washington would not tell a lie when asked if he'd cut down the cherry tree.  Today's students don't get taught that story, or we are so sophisticated these days about "truth" that we are too "smart" to believe such things, but I don't mind thinking about men who were known for their honesty and integrity even if it meant facing the music for something they had done wrong.  Those character traits never go out of style especially among leaders.

Oops.  Sorry about that.  Here, I will get off of my soapbox now.

So back to cherry pie.  Or really two cherry pies!  And ice cream!  Because what is cherry pie without ice cream?

That is how the pies and ice cream looked once I laid them all out in the empty cubicle in front of me yesterday morning.  And folks are getting sort of used to this Baking Friday (only it's on Thursday for them) gig.  I started getting questions earlier in the week on what I was bringing in.  Plus we have a new person joining our department soon, so there was some discussion about where he would sit, and if he should sit someplace other than the cube right in front of me - that this cube is now known as the Baking Friday cube.

But back to our story.  Cherry pie.  The one on the right is a cherry crumb pie.  Here is a close up of it.

It has the same cherry filling on the inside as the one on the left (which will be the primary focus of this post) but with a crumb topping instead of a lattice crust.  I used a basic crumb topping (butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon mixed together until crumbly) but I added some slivered almonds since cherries and almonds go so well together.  And then I drizzled the top with a basic icing glaze after it had cooled.  Just because.

Oh - and I had two kinds of ice cream - vanilla, of course, and butter pecan.  And let me tell you!  The butter pecan paired very, very nicely with the cherries!

But here is the pie on the left - cherry with a lattice crust.

And it's the lattice crust that is why I chose this pie.  I have struggled with lattice crusts for as long as I can remember.  This is a picture from my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that I got when I first got married over 30 years ago.  It's still a solid, everyday sort of cookbook, and I use it every once in a while, especially for homemade tomato soup (way better than canned!) and as the base for this cherry pie filling.  But back to the lattice crust.  See how they say to do it?

No, I realize you can't read the instructions, but the picture (in black and white so worth way more than a thousand words!) implies about laying the strips across the top and then peeling back to weave in the cross strips.  Except every time I did this, I ended up with messy strips from the filling!  And who wants that?

UNTIL.  Until a few months ago.  Just a few weeks after Pie Night 2013 to be exact.  Ok, well not exact since "few weeks" isn't very exact, but it was between this pic...

...and this pic...

..that I figured this out.  And thank God for dates on camera pics, the first pic was taken 11/21/13 and the second on 12/13/13, so that's about as exact as we are going to get, but see how much prettier the second lattice crust is than the first?  Wanna know why?

Cause I didn't do the second one ON the pie!  I did it ON waxed paper first and then chilled it and then placed it on the filled pie!  Genius, right?!

See?  Here are some pics of putting this together Wednesday night for the cherry pie.  First, you will need the equivalent of 3 pie crusts - one for the bottom and up to 2 for the lattice, depending upon how tight or how loose you want your lattice.  And yes, scandal, this is pre-made crust.  I understand if you need to stop reading now and you've lost all respect for me.  I'm glad we were friends for a while...

Take the rolled out crusts that you are using for the lattice and cut strips about 1/2" wide.  Yes, I use a ruler, cause I just can't plain cut straight otherwise!

Chances are you will need to chill these strips before weaving, so simply lay them on waxed paper and on a cookie sheet and slide the sheet in the fridge or the freezer for a few minutes.

You'll have long ones and short ones and scraps.  That is normal.

When you are ready to begin weaving, start with a few of the longer strips on the waxed paper and weave these together.  You are basically starting from the middle and working your way out.

Keep adding strips one at a time...

...weaving over and under...

...and as tightly or as loosely as you like until...

...you have enough woven together to cover the top of the pie!  And no messy filling!  Slide this in the fridge while you prepare your filling.

For this cherry pie filling, I used 1/3 canned tart cherries, 1/3 canned dark sweet cherries and 1/3 frozen dark sweet cherries.

I drained them for a little while (especially the frozen ones) and got a total of about 1-1/2 cups of juice.

I mixed together 1 cup of sugar with 4 T. of cornstarch and 4 T. of flour plus a dash of salt and then whisked in the cherry juice and cooked it over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.

Once it came to a boil, a bit of foam appears on the surface.

I continued boiling and stirring for about a minute, until thick and the foam had disappeared.

Then I added 2 T. of butter, another 1/4 cup of sugar, plus splashes for vanilla and almond...

...and finally the cherries.  A bit more juice had accumulated while I was making the filling so I tossed that in as well.  I felt like the filling would be plenty thick enough that the extra couple of tablespoons of juice would not throw off the balance.

You can see the tart cherries (lighter colored) and the dark sweet.  I wanted to use a mix, because I find a pie made with only tart cherries to be too tart, and one made with only dark sweet to be a bit too sweet, so I was trying to find a balance between the two.  If I had used only tart cherries, I might have felt a need to add a bit of red food coloring just to brighten the color, but the dark sweet provided enough "redness" so I didn't feel like the color looked insipid.

I set this aside to cool just a bit and then started filling the shells, covering one shell with the crumb topping and almonds...

...and one with the lattice crust.  I pulled it out of the fridge...

..and flipped it over onto the pie - waxed paper and all and then peeled away the waxed paper.  What could be simpler?!

Trim and crimp and brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sparkling sugar and I was ready for the oven!

400 degrees and 55 minutes later, and we had pie!  Er, I mean pies!

I let them rest overnight and then drizzled the crumb topping pie with glaze and the rest as they say is history!

I got some great quotes from folks at work on these pies...

"Both pies are wonderful, thank you!  Although I think I like the one with streusel topping better... something about the crumbly sweet topping made it ahhhmazing!"

"The topping is the bomb!"

"Best balance of sweet and tart I've ever had and 100% better than red velvet." <insert grin here>

"Both pies are DELICIOUS.  I really like the way the Cherry lattice pie had the flaky top crust.  I believe that I am a purist and prefer the lattice pie, it had a nice little tart flavor.  I decided to go with the butter pecan ice cream which was a hit in my book.  I am not so sure about the crumb topping, it is good but just a little too sweet, it almost overpowered the tart cherry flavor."

"The pies are yummy...delicious.  Just what I need to go along with my coffee!"

"I cannot tell a lie - that is just plain Sinful!"  (capital "S"...and I often get called "The Devil Woman" by people who are watching their weight...)

"Delicious!  I just love the crunch!  It goes really well with the ice cream!"

Based on this feedback, I believe the balance of tart and sweet is pretty much a personal preference thing, but I might suggest that if you go with the crumb topping, perhaps use a 2/3 to 1/3 tart to sweet balance and if you go with a top crust, use a 1/3 to 2/3 tart to sweet balance.

So there you have it!  President's Day. Valentine's Day.  Cherry pie, but if you've ever struggled with lattice crust like I have, try giving this method of weaving the strips on waxed paper a test drive and see what you think!

As always, thanks for stopping by, and we'll see you again soon!

Love,
DD