Cherry Lattice Deep-Dish Pie

It's cherry season. 

Doesn't that just send you running to the grocery store!?!?..... I guess it's just me. And Mr. S. 

Quick story! When Mr. S and I first got married, we would go to the grocery store together all the time. We called them grocery dates. One fall day, Mr. S wanted some fruit. The cherries (from some country in South America no doubt) looked really good. He grabbed a bag, weighed it, put the price sticker on it, and handed them to me. The cherries were over $14 for a smallish bag. I looked at him and said "You really want cherries?" He casually said yeah, so I put them in the cart... Thinking that I had either married a moron or Mr. Big.

When we got to the register and the lady rang us up, he was flabbergasted that our bill was so high. He mentioned that when we got into the car, so I pulled it out and showed him. $14 for cherries. He hadn't even looked at the price when he grabbed them, weighed them, and tagged them. Doh!

Mr. S has now committed the price of cherries to memory. He knows seasonal highs and lows. And the low was reached last week. 

Back to pie. We bought a truckload (almost) of cherries, so the only rational solution to use them all up was pie!

Start out with the crust. Use the Smitten Kitchen Pie 102 recipe. Literally step for step.

Dries get put in a biiiiig bowl. You'll need the space. 

Next, chunks of super cold butter get cut in with a pastry cutter. 

Add some ice water.

Just a 1/2 cup. 

Stir it in quickly - just till the dough begins to form clumps.

Using your hands, gather it up into a ball. Quickly. The name of the game is - don't touch the dough! The more you touch it, the tougher it will be.

Divide the ball in two.

Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour and a half. Seriously. Let it chill. Pick up that book you've been meaning to read. 

Next, make the cherry filling. It's super easy. Dump everything in a bowl. Stir. 

Roll out your first dough ball. 

Drape it into the pie dish. Then fill it with the cherry mixture.

Roll out the second ball. Cut the circle into strips. Use every other one to make stripes on the pie.

 

 Take the other strips and weave them into the first set.

Pinch around the edges to seal. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Then at 350 for another 30.

Until it's golden brown and bubbly. Let it cool for at least 2 hours.

Slice and nosh. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Cherry Lattice Deep-Dish Pie

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Crust:

Smitten Kitchen Pie 102 recipe. Literally step for step.

I may have also added a few grates of nutmeg and some almond extract.

Cherry Filling: (if you've got a regular pie plate, reduce the cherries to 4 c., cornstarch to 4 tsp, etc)

6 c. pitted sweet cherries

6 tbsp corn starch

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/3 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

10 grates of fresh nutmeg

Make the crust as Deb tells you to. Including the resting period in the fridge. Don't skip it. 

While the dough is chilling out, make up the filling. Dump everything in a bowl and stir. Preheat  your oven to 400 degrees.

Roll out the first half of the dough, leaving the other half in the fridge. Make sure it's bigger than the pie dish. Hanging off the edge a little is a-ok.

Pour the cherry mixture into the crust-lined pie dish. If you don't like your pies wet, leave most of the sugar juice in the bottom of the bowl. If you don't mind things a little soupy, pour it all in.

Roll out the second dough ball. Make it slightly larger than the pie plate too. 

Use a sharp knife and cut the dough into 1 1/2 inch strips. Taking every other strip, lay them an inch and a bit apart, one way across the pie. Take the strips you've got left, weave them into the pie. Over, under, over, under, etc. 

If you run out of dough strips, cut off some of the overhanging parts of strips you've already woven in and pinch them together to create another strip. No one will notice any wonky looking strips.

Trim off the excess dough and pinch all the way around the pan, creating a crimped edge. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then back the oven off to 350 and bake another 30-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the cherries are bubbling away. Allow to cool for at least 2 hours. 

Enjoy!