Tart Cherry Pie

My mom hosted Thanksgiving part 2 over the weekend. It was suppose to be a "light dinner" and everyone was suppose to bring something. She asked me to bring ham and mashed potatoes.

But I was thinking something sweet too... I've been eying the 2 cans of tart cherries left in my cupboard from my in-laws' visit last week. My MIL made this fantastic cherry pie with those cherries and I was regretting not eating more last week. Lo and behold! The recipe was on the back of the label. Even better, there was a recipe for homemade pie crust and then one for the cherry filling. I wasn't feeling like I wanted to make pie crust so I picked up some ready made pie crusts from Trader Joe's.

This cherry pie is way too easy. Why I don't make pies more often, I don't know. Using ready made pie crusts makes it so incredibly simple. Now I didn't look at the ingredient label of the pie crust, though if I did, I'd probably see additives and other things I don't like, but let's not focus on that.

Interesting, I googled the recipe for this pie off of the Oregon Cherries site, and it calls for twice as much sugar on the website as on the label. On the back of the label, it says 1/2-3/4 cup of sugar, but the website says 1 1/2 cups of sugar. I used 1/2 cup and it was plenty for me.

Tart Cherry Pie

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar (more or less to taste)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cans Oregon Red Tart Pie Cherries, drained, reserve juice from one can
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 tablespoon butter
Pastry for two-crust 9-inch pie

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Drain the cherries and reserve the juice from only one can. In a saucepan, stir the cherry juice into the combined mixture of the cornstarch and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Gently stir in cherries and almond extract. Remove from heat.
3. Pour filling into pastry lined pie pan. Dot with butter.
4. Place the second pie crust on top. Adjust crust, seal and vent. Alternatively, create lattice for top.
5. Bake 45 minutes or until crust browns and filling begins to bubble. If necessary, cover edges with aluminum foil during the last 15 minutes to prevent over-browning.
6. Cool pie several hours to allow filling to thicken before slicing.

Makes 8 servings.