Christmas Cherry Pie

Is there such a thing as Christmas Cherry Pie?

Well if there isn’t, we think there should be as it is sweet, and red, and what more could you ask for from a Christmas dessert? But you can make it any time…Valentine’s Day… Washington’s Birthday…the 4th of July…you get the idea. Now get to making yourself a Christmas Cherry Pie.

Christmas Cherry Pie
(We used the Oregon brand of cherries but you can use any brand you chose as long as they are just cherries and not pie filling)

2 cans of sweet cherries
1/2 cup sugar
juice of 1/2 a lemon
Heaping 1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Dash of cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter cut into tiny pieces
Double pie crust (this is our BEST pie crust recipe that you can make with either gluten free flour or make with regular all purpose flour)
Beaten egg and some extra sugar for glazing the top of the pie

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Roll out your pie crust and line a pie tin with the bottom crust. Whether you are making a gluten free crust or a regular crust the method is the same.

Drain the juice from the cherries. (You can keep this to use in drinks or sparkling water.) Stir in the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and almond extract to the cherries. (The almond extract actually enhances the cherry flavor) Add just a dash of cinnamon and stir again. Then pour into the bottom crust. Dot with the tiny pieces of butter.

Roll out the second piece of dough. You can either cut the dough into strips and weave them over and under each other as we did in the picture above, or roll out the dough into a circle and using very, very small cookie cutters or decorative pie crust cutters, cut random shapes. A very small circle with either a straight or fluted edge works well. The holes you make with the tiny cutters will serve to vent the pie as it cooks just as the gaps between the lattice does. You can use the circles you cut out to decorate the edges of the pie or place them between the cut holes to form a sort of 3D decoration on the top of the crust.

Once your top crust is in place brush it with some beaten egg and then sprinkle lavishly with some sugar (about1-2 tablespoons) to finish the pie. The egg wash will give the crust a golden finish and the sugar gives it a bit of sparkle as well as a delightfully sweet taste.

Place the pie on a baking sheet in case there is any dripping over the sides as the pie cooks. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake an additional 20-25 minutes until the pie crust is golden brown and the cherry filling is bubbling.

Cool and enjoy your Christmas Pie with some vanilla ice cream 🙂