Twice-Baked Sour Cherry Pie

This is hands down the best cherry pie recipe I've tried. The trick of twice-baking really pays off. I bake the cut-out top crusts separately on a baking sheet with heavy cream brushed and sprinkled with Demerara sugar. Then I top the filling with them after everything is cooled so cut-out crust will stay straight-flat and crisp, otherwise they become wavy over the bumpy filling.

There is a better recipe on the site, Jacques Pepin's Sour Cherry Tart, which I've made many times. There's no pretty picture, but the recipe is simpler and better than this one, which I tried. Perhaps it would have worked all right with fresh sour cherries, but mine were frozen. They bubbled up and leaked beneath the crust before the pie was done, defeating the purpose of the double baking---and I'm an experienced pie maker. In retrospect, I would defrost the cherries first.

I haven't tried this, and the crust is probably quite crunchy, but I have never had a problem with soggy crust in a fruit pie if I bake in a Pyrex plate at 425°on the bottom shelf of the oven - not convection - for 20 minutes before turning down the heat to 350°. If your convection oven has a pie setting, use that, still bottom shelf, or you can switch from conventional to convection when you turn the heat down.

I've found that canned sour cherries taste fine, although they do not have the same brightness of color. The ones I've found come in 14+ ounce cans, so I consider one can of pitted sour cherries the weight equivalent of one pound of fresh sour cherries with their pits. I retain some but not all of the juice.

I agree, Keiko, the twice baked crust pays off. However, I prefer 1 T lemon juice and 1/2 t almond extract as the flavoring, instead of brandies. I will stick to this old recipe.

Wow, this is great. Used the technique with peaches and it was the best pie we have ever eaten. A keeper!

Pie crust tip: substitute 1/3 of the water in your pie crust dough with vodka, stored in the freezer. You won't taste the vodka and you can use an extra teaspoon to moisten the dough if it isn't quite coming together. That's because vodka doesn't react with the gluten in wheat flour; it's also super cold when you add it. Easy-to-handle dough *and* flaky crust!

Mix fresh or thawed frozen cherries with sugar, cinnamon, and Kirsch and let sit for 30 minutes. Strain the juice into a sauce pan, add thickener, and bring to a boil. Cook for a couple of minutes. Combine thickened juice with cherries and put into the crust. Thickening the juice reduces run-over without precooking the cherries, which preserves the texture.

King Orchards in Michigan will ship IQF Balaton cherries, which are tart but solid (like Bing) and vastly better than Montmorency which is more widely available. And the people there are extremely nice and helpful.

Come up to the Finger Lakes around July 4 weekend. There are scads of u-pick sour cherry places on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake! We pit 'em and freeze in zip-bags, ready for pie-making all winter long.

I've made this several times, and it's a success. But in my experience, there is simply not enough dough to roll out the crust 3/8" thick-- nowhere near enough. I multiply the crust ingredients by 1.5 and that keeps the crust from being too thin (although still not 3/8", which is pretty thick).

This is exactly how I have been baking my pies for years. Never a soggy, underbaked bottom crust. I just want to add that an advantage of the pyrex plate is that you can look at the bottom from underneath .... when the bottom crust no longer looks doughy.... it is done.

Added 1T lemon juice, 1/4 t ground cardamom and 1/4 t almond extract to cherries. Dotted filling with 1T diced butter before covering with top crust. Lined bottom crust with 1/4 c almond flour combined w/ 1 T sugar before adding cherry filling.

I'd say yes. If still frozen the cherries will release a lot of juice as they cook.

8/9/15 I really wanted to love this pie. I used heart cutouts for the top, and it looked adorable going into the oven. However.....upon serving, the texture of the crust ranged from soggy to rubbery to crisp. The only repeat for me will be the clever design of the top crust with a different recipe.

I love cherry pie but had never made one. Saw gorgeous sour cherries at the farmer's market and decided it was time. This pie was delicious. The crust came out beautifully and the filling tasted fantastic. I substituted corn starch as I didn't have tapioca and used vanilla extract instead of brandy for same reason. No problems.