Recipe: Orgasmically Delicious Low-Sugar Fresh Cherry Pie!

Oh-Em-Gee!  Have you ever had FRESH Cherry Pie?!  Like, made from FRESH, JUST-PICKED cherries?!!

I must shamefully admit that, No, I have NEVER experienced Fresh Cherry Pie.

I've had "bakery" cherry pies from the grocery store (Ick!).  I've had frozen cherry pies.  I've made "fresh-ish" pies from canned cherry filling (High-Fructose Corn Syrup, anyone?!).  And I've had "fresh" cherry pies from Marie Callender's and Heidi's Pies (family-owned restaurant in San Mateo, CA).

Well.  I had NO clue what I'd been missing.  No sirree!  No clue whatsoever!!!

So a couple of days ago, I succumbed to temptation, and delusion, and what-EVER, and loaded up on produce from our local farm-stand, Giordano's. (Note: I get no "spliff" or nuthin' for posting links.  I just LOVE Giordano's farm-stand THAT MUCH, k?!)

Yeah, they had a display like this:

Okay, this is actually an older photo and they didn't have *quite* this many cherries...

But the display was still irresistible and I loaded up on several pounds' worth...  All of Giordano's cherries are picked, on-site, on the day they are sold.  They are amazingly delicious!

So I picked up a large basket of Rainiers (the yellowy-orange variety) and - I think - a large basket of Brooks.  Bings are nearing the end of the season (:::sigh:::).  The cherries sat on our countertop for a couple of days (and I ate handfuls of cherries 'til I was damn-near sick!).  

Well, today...  After catching-up on work emails, I determined that it was going to be a blissfully slow day so I dragged out my Cherry-Pitter (Christmas Prezzie from hubs - Yay, hubs!)...

Note: This is a very cool li'l gizmo and a HUGE time-saver.

But it is NOT foolproof.  We discovered more than a few pits in the pie.

(Ooooops!) ("Oh well!" Just proves it's home-made, right?!)

And I ended up with a bowl-full of cherries that looked something like this:

Yummmm!!!

And I consulted the Great Oracle, Google and found this (which was dutifully "Pinned").

And I ended up with THIS:

"Ohh-Emm-Eff-Gee!"

Okay, so I followed the recipe, pretty-closely, but I'll repost it with my Low-Sugar Mods and "suggested improvements"

QT's Orgasmically Delicious Low-Sugar Fresh Cherry Pie

Yield: One 9" deep-dish pie

Time: ~30 mins prep time.  ~50 mins cooking time

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of sweet cherries, pitted and de-stemmed (I used appx 50/50 Rainier and Brooks) (Forgot to weigh 'em - sorry!)
• 4 TBS Tapioca
• "just shy of" 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• "slightly more than" 1/2 cup granulated Splenda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract (the real-deal).  Orig recipe called for 1/2 tsp
• 1/8 tsp almond extract (again, real).  Orig recipe called for 1/4 tsp (but I think that's too much.  I used that qty and it tasted too almondy, IMHO)
• 1 TBS softened butter
• 2 crusts for a 9" deep-dish pie (I cheated and went with store-bought, frozen [bottom] and refrigerated roll-out [top])
• 1 egg white and a smidge of water

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 450*.  While it's pre-heating, rinse and pit your cherries.
2. Thaw your crusts (if you're lazy like me), but keep 'em cool in the fridge.
3. Dump the pitted cherries in a bowl.  Add tapioca, salt, sugar/splenda, vanilla and almond extracts.  Stir as best you can (Mine was pretty dry - but that's a GOOD thing!  I'm not fond of gushy-goozy pies!).
4. Beat your egg-white + smidge of water (maybe a tsp?) lightly with a fork.  Remove bottom crust from the fridge and brush egg-white on the bottom crust.
5. Dump your fruity/sugar mixture into the crust. It can "heap" a little bit, but not too much (unless you want fruit goozing out!).  Blorp butter blops on top of the fruit (say that three-times fast!)
6. Dampen the outer edges of the bottom crust with a wet finger.  Unroll your top crust and place it on top of the bottom crust.  Cut off excess and squidge the top + bottom crusts together with your fingers to seal 'em together.
7. Cut vent hole(s) in the top.
8. Brush the top crust with more of the egg-white (you'll have too much egg-white - don't worry about it!)
9. Place the pie in your pre-heated oven and cook @ 450* for 10 minutes.  Lower heat to 375 and cook for an add'l 35-40 minutes 'til the fruit is bubbly and the top is brown.
10. Allow pie to mostly-cool before serving.

TOTALLY enjoy it!

Here's a couple more pics of the pie "Under Construction:"

Mixing the pie-guts

Yes, it's dry - but this is GOOD. It makes for a non-gloopy pie!

Filling the bottom crust.

Don't forget to blorp butter on top!

Fresh out of the oven

It smelled *almost* as good as it tasted!

Yep.  I am FOREVER spoiled now and will NEVER look at a Bakery Cherry Pie the same way again...

Amazingly delicious!!!