Confession: I’ve never had cherry pie before.
I know it’s weird. I LOVE pie. I bake pies. How have I never had cherry pie?
I guess it comes from the fact that when I think of cherry pie, I think of neon red concoctions from a can and a surfeit of high fructose corn syrup.
Once, when I was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at one of those Pennsylvania Dutch family style restaurants, I dipped my finger in a bit of cherry pie filling and it was so sweet my eyes bugged out of my face. Too much.
But when I saw these at the market the other day…
…I heard a certain Disney baboon’s voice in my head.
And so it was. Sweet Cherry Hand Pies were in order.
A lot of people use tart cherries in their pies, but we had sweet cherries at the market. And in the wise words of Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman, “Whoever said you can’t make a good cherry pie with sweet cherries was lying.”
I just added a bit of lemon juice for tartness and kept the amount of sugar relatively low. It worked swimmingly.
Sweet Cherry Hand Pies: Recipe Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Wash and halve your cherries…
And stir together the cherries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Set aside.
To make the dough, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, and butter in a food processor until coarse crumbs form. Add the water and form into a dough. Add a little more water if needed. This is based on Williams Sonoma’s recipe for basic pie dough, and they don’t call for any pre-chilling whatsoever, so yay! I’m just doin’ what the professionals are telling me.
Roll out the dough to a large rectangle about ¼ inch thick and cut out circles or squares (for circles, I used an inverted circular Tupperware container). Re-roll the dough and continue cutting until you have 10 circles. Place five of the circles on a baking sheet and divide the cherries among them.
At this point, you’re noticing the rivers of cherry juice flooding the baking sheet. I poured this off and reserved it…because you’ll want it in a second.
Cover with the other five circles, crimp closed…
And cut vents in the top. Now’s when that reserved cherry juice comes back in. Just use a little spoon to distribute all that goodness into the pies via the air vents. Without it, the pies will be dry.
Brush with egg wash.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until golden.
These are perfect for the 4th of July. You could even make them smaller for littler party desserts. Plus, we have an even more amazing follow-up recipe posting in a couple days. (UPDATE: Here’s the follow-up: No-Churn Bourbon Cherry Pie Ice Cream. Yup. We said it.)
If you possess superhuman self-control, save a coupla pies in your arsenal for that next recipe.
Until next time, folks!
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Recipe
Sweet Cherry Hand Pies
Ingredients
- 2 cups pitted fresh or frozen sweet cherries halved
- 1/3 cup sugar (you can also adjust to taste)
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 11 tablespoons butter (about 150g)
- 4-5 tablespoons ice water
- Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Stir together the cherries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Set aside.
- To make the dough, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, and butter in a food processor until coarse crumbs form. Add the water and form into a dough. Add a little more water if needed.
- Roll out the dough to a large rectangle about ¼ inch thick and cut out circles or squares (for circles, I used an inverted circular Tupperware container). Re-roll the dough and continue cutting until you have 10 circles. Place five of the circles on a baking sheet and divide the cherries among them (reserve the excess juice). Cover with the other five circles, crimp closed, and cut vents in the top. Spoon the cherry juice into the pies through the air vents. Brush with egg wash.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until golden.
