If you follow me on IG you may have seen my pics of the cherries we recently picked from my Mom and Dad’s cherry tree. I remember when that cherry tree was planted – I was just a young girl. My brother and sister climbed the tree some if I recall correctly, I played in it a time or two, and my girls have climbed and played in it. It’s seen a lot of years, weathered quite a few storms, and has been broken and buffeted by the winds. A couple years ago the biggest part of it broke off in a storm and we figured we’d seen the last of the fruit from that tree. My Dad cleared away the broken part and left the scraggly bits that were left, and lo and behold, this year that tree produced its heart out.
Cherry trees tend to bear fruit bountifully every other year or so. We’ve picked wondrous amounts of cherries some years and other years not any at all. When my Mom text me to say ‘Dad is picking cherries’, I knew my hubby would be all set to go help get them picked. We picked all that were ripe, washed and pitted them, and froze them. And for the 4th of July I made a cherry pie. With the yummy, sour, organic cherries from my parents cherry tree.
Homemade Organic Cherry Pie
Homemade Organic Cherry Pie
Ingredients
- 4 cups sour cherries
- 3/4 tsp. baking soda
- 3 TBS minute tapioca
- 3/4 to 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 tsp almond flavoring
- dash salt
- 1 unbaked pie crust
- Crumb Crust for top crust
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 flour
- 1/3 cup butter REAL BUTTER
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Sprinkle soda on cherries and let set a few minutes. Add tapioca, sugar, almond flavoring, and salt and stir together. Let stand 15 minutes. (I let it stand while I roll out my pie crusts.)
- Pour cherry filling into pie crust. Top with crumb crust mixture. Bake for an hour at 350°
- Crumb Crust: - mix flour and sugar together; cut in cold butter. Once crumbly, add chopped pecans. Top filled pie with crumb mixture.
Cherry pie is my favorite – both to make and to eat. It’s quick to make – which is a huge thumbs up to me 🙂
I actually enjoy making pie crust – I always use my recipe for The Best Pie Crust Ever that I got from my Mom who got it from her Mom. It’s pretty quick and easy to make too. And it makes 3 crusts. I put each crust in a pie plate and froze 2 to use later.
My husband likes my crumb crust for the top crust of a cherry pie. Crumb crusts are very easy to make (especially when I get my hubby to cut in the cold butter for me) It also makes my pie dough make more pies – just using the pie dough for the bottom crust means I get 3 pies out of one batch of dough. WIN!
My husband also likes his Cherry Pie with Homemade Ice Cream. This year for the 4th he made ice cream on Friday night. I made the pie Saturday afternoon and the leftover ice cream went very well with it.
My 9 year old likes the pie (except for the cherries) She cracks me up. She digs through her piece of pie eating all the sweet sugary stuff and most of the crust. And leaves the cherries behind. Just a bit too sour for her. 
I honestly think the pie is better the day after it’s baked. The flavors have time to meld together and once cooled it all just becomes the most heavenly of desserts. Of course, when I actually make a pie, it gets cut into almost the minute it comes out of the oven. This also makes it more difficult to get amazing food photos – those hot pieces of pie want to crumble all over the plate instead of sitting in a nice perfect piece.
And just because I thought some of you might get a kick out of this – here is what the kitchen looked like around that serene, lovely scene of the pie I just shot. It’s amazing what you can crop out of a shot with the right lens 🙂
The pie is sitting on the table in the middle of those munchkins and my hubby. I pulled out my butcher block cutting board and grabbed an old table linen and staged a very quick photo shoot – AFTER I served everyone their pie. I did get a few very quick shots of the whole pie but I had to snap fast! Notice the shots of the piece of pie with ice cream were after the pie plate was half empty 🙂
Last year I found some leftover cherries in my freezer that had been forgotten. There were not enough for a whole pie, so I added some blueberries, combined my cherry pie and my blueberry pie recipes, and created Cherry/Blueberry Pie. It’s pretty yummy too. I haven’t made a blueberry pie for a long long time. I’ll have to use one of those crusts I just put in the freezer and make one of those and share that recipe with you too. It’s the best blueberry pie ever.
Do you make pies? What kind is your favorite?
Jill
Love the pictures! I like cherry pie, but I like blueberry and apple better and strawberry and pumpkin and cream….Needless to say, I really don’t make cherry pie very often. 🙂 This recipe is very, very yummy though! Cherry wouldn’t be at the top of Matthew’s list either, so there you have it!
Part of the fun of photography is creating beauty, even in chaos or messes!
Yes, when it’s not your hubby’s fav that makes a huge difference! Cherry happens to be Travis favorite so that’s the biggest reason we make sure the cherries get picked and in the freezer 🙂
I was thinking cherry was his favorite!
Well, as Grandma wrote on her butterscotch pie recipe for me when she included the instructions for meringue, Grandpa didn’t like it so she used Cool Whip, so “do as your man likes.” 🙂