I have a scary confession to make: it wasn’t until I made this recipe that I had ever eaten cherry pie. When Ryan, my husband, found out I had never had cherry pie, he gave me the most unbelievable look. The whole cherry pie experiment started when I saw that Rowley’s Red Barn was having a 20% off sale on cherries in February. We went to investigate. Fortunately, we snagged the last of their frozen tart cherries.
My second hurdle after I revived my now stupefied husband was to figure out how to make cherry pie from frozen sour cherries. Because I hadn’t eaten cherry pie, I had never made cherry pie. This was going to be an experiment with high risk, high reward possibilities. Not a novel situation for me given my research background. I spent hours on the internet trying to find a recipe that looked reliable. I landed on Presidential Cherry Pie on King Arthur Flour’s website. On a wing and a prayer, I made the recipe and now tart cherry pie is in contention with apple pie for being my favorite.
Cherry Pie from Frozen Tart Cherries
Ingredients
- double pie crust
- 1 bucket (1.5 L) of frozen tart cherries
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup Cornaby’s Ultra Gel®
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 425ºF (since I live at 5,000 feet I add an extra 5ºF).
- Gently warm up the frozen cherries in a pan or microwave, but don’t cook the cherries yet. You just want them to unthaw. If you let them thaw naturally they’ll turn nasty brown.
- Drain the cherries, reserving 2/3 cup of liquid.
- Place the cherries and reserved liquid in a large mixing bowl.
- In another small bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, and Ultra Gel®. Then, add to the cherries until everything is evenly combined.
- Stir in the almond extract and salt.
- Let to pie dough come to room temperature for 10 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a circle, about ¼ inch thick.
- Transfer the dough to pie dish.
- Carefully pour the filling into the pastry-lined pie pan.
- Repeat with the second disk of dough. Cut dough and make a lattice over the filling, or leave the circle intact and cover the filling completely, cutting a few vents with a sharp knife.
- Fold the edges of the top and bottom crusts together and use your index fingers and thumb to pinch into a pattern. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired.
- Place the pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet to catch any spills, and bake in a preheated 425°F oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling.
- Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool completely (2 hours).
HandmadePhD 
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