A Traditional Farm Life - Tart Cherry Lattice Pie

A Traditional Farm Life

By Shasta Hamilton 

Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends!  As we examine our property in order to plan future sites for an orchard, berry patch, and greenhouse, our current lush green surroundings increase our anticipation of bountiful harvests to come.   

Fueling the fire was a recent invitation to come pick a good friend’s cherry trees. What a dream come true!  We loaded up the family and arrived in a backyard in Chapman to find two trees absolutely loaded with the tart, red orbs.  Visions of cherry pies danced in our heads as eight eager amateur cherry pickers prepared to fill bowls and ice cream buckets to the brim. 

How did we know they were tart and juicy?  To a person, our first cherry picked went in immediately for a taste test. After warnings to the children of the dire consequences of eating too much ripe fruit in one sitting, we turned to the task at hand.

How do you even begin such a monumental task?  In our naiveté, we began by delicately “cherry picking” the best cherries, but it soon became obvious this method would take way too long.  (We were in someone else’s backyard, after all.) 

We then began attempting to reach up and grab clusters of cherries all at once, but found we could not keep a hold on them and they ended up rolling off hat brims onto the ground.  After clumsily picking for what seemed like an eternity, we combined our small bowls and ice cream buckets to discover we only had enough to fill one large stainless steel bowl.

Providentially, about this time the owner came out to check on us and to casually mention there was someone else who was coming to pick cherries as well.

Should we feign disappointment or shout, “Hallelujah!”?  We chose the middle ground and said we would be happy to leave some cherries for the next folks.  (You could barely even tell we’d picked from the trees.)

This morning the girls and I sat down at the kitchen table and had a nice mother/daughter chat while pitting cherries.  We tried several methods we had heard about.  The most creative was using the tokens from our Sorry!™ board game to push out the pit.  We also poked out pits with toothpicks, but we found the best method to be using the curved end of our (clean) hairpins.  (A paper clip bent open would have the same result, but wouldn’t be nearly as fun to tell about.)

The cherries had not held up well in their two days in the fridge, and when all was said and done we had a grand total of only SIX CUPS pitted cherries. 

So much for that recipe for canning cherry pie filling requiring 24 cups of fruit.  Plan B was quickly implemented, and the “Tart Cherry Lattice Pie” recipe was selected from on old Taste of Home annual cookbook.

The recipe required 4 cups for one pie, so I prepared the filling for one pie while my daughters used the remaining 2 cups to prepare a similar recipe.  When I poured the filling into my pastry-lined 9” pan, I knew I was in trouble.  It was mounded full and the juices were ready to overflow the sides of the pan.  I plowed on ahead and carefully put on the lattice top, struggling to retain the juices in the pie while building up the pastry rim “retaining wall” around the edges as high as possible.       

Expecting the worst, I carefully set the pie on a cookie sheet before putting it in the oven.  The pastry dam broke as anticipated, and about one fourth of the outside edge of the crust fell off the pie into the caramelized juices below, effectively cementing my pie to the pan.  Not a pretty sight.  (A quick review of the recipe afterward revealed I should have drained off the accumulated juices before making the filling.)

The girls made two small cherry tarts, which came out beautifully.  Later in the afternoon we took the fruit of our labors to the restaurant for hubby to admire.  After a quick glance at the lopsided lattice pie, my husband made an astute observation: “Well, I guess it won’t win a ribbon at the county fair.”

Well, dear friends, we all know you can’t judge a book by its cover.  Hubby declared after his second slice it was absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, the best cherry pie he had ever eaten.  It was certainly a lot more work than opening up a can from the store, but by next year we’ll have forgotten all the trouble and be ready to do it all over again.

  

Tart Cherry Lattice Pie

1-1/3 cups sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened

pitted tart cherries, thawed

and drained

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Pastry for a double crust pie (9 inches)

2 tablespoons butter, cut into small

pieces

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2.  In a large bowl, combine sugar and flour; stir in cherries and extract.  Line a 9-in. pie plate with bottom pastry; trim to 1 inch beyond edge of plate.  Pour filling into crust.  Dot with butter.

3.  Roll out remaining pastry; make a lattice crust.  Seal and flute edges.  Cover edges loosely with foil.

4.  Bake 20 minutes.  Reduce heat to 375 degrees.  Remove foil; bake 20-25 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly.  Cool on a wire rack. Yield:  6-8 servings.

Copyright © 2015 by Shasta Hamilton

Shasta is a fifth generation rural Kansan now residing in Enterprise, Kansas.  She and her husband own and operate The Buggy Stop Home-Style Kitchen with their six home-schooled children.  You can reach The Buggy Stop by calling (785) 200-6385 or visit them on the web at www.thebuggystoprestaurant.com.

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