Be.Baking

Fresh Cherry Pie…the thought alone conjures up images of cute little grandmothers in cute little aprons rolling out pie dough and pitting cherries.

Come to think of it, it’s actually rather odd that I have such a mental picture. I never saw my own grandmothers do any of that. And, after consulting with fellow pie-eaters, it seems that I am not alone in my lack of cherry pie memories. The majority of us never had a Betty White look-a-like make us a Fresh Cherry Pie.

The reality of a Fresh Cherry Pie (Granny issues aside) is indeed just as good as you think it is. Tart and sweet and perfectly summer.

This week, Shanon and I made Fresh Cherry Pies with Oat Crumb Topping for one of the lunch desserts at Facebook. After pitting 40 pounds of cherries (which induced slight delirium), we figured out why hardly anyone makes Fresh Cherry Pies…

Once we had a pit-free (or as close to it as possible) mountain of cherries, we piled the ruby red filling into the pie shells we had made and rolled out the day before. We got exactly 12 pies, which we topped with a nice buttery Oat Crumble.

Sorry to bust a hole in nostalgia, but neither Shanon nor I is a cute little grandmother. However, we do make a mean Cherry Pie. And you can too…

Fresh Cherry Pie with Oat Crumble
Makes one 9-inch pie
Crust
* 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* ½ cup plus 1 tablespoons (1 and 1/8 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
* 4 tablespoons (or more) ice water
* 1 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Oat Crumble
* 1 cup all purpose flour
*1/2 cup oats
* 6 tablespoons golden brown sugar
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling
* 1 cup (scant) sugar
* 3 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* Pinch of salt
*zest from 1 lemon
*1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 2 1/2 pounds sour cherries, pitted

Preparation
For Crust:
Blend flour, sugar, and salt in processor. Add butter; using on/off turns, process until coarse meal forms. Add 4 tablespoons ice water and cider vinegar; blend until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough together. Turn dough out onto work surface; form into ball and flatten into disk. Wrap disk in plastic; refrigerate at least 1 hour.