My sweet boyfriend had been hinting at cherry pie since cherries starting appearing in our local supermarket, but I was afraid. I'd never attempted a cherry pie before. I didn't even have a cherry pitter (he quickly solved that little problem). The only thing I'd ever done with cherries was pop them in my mouth, preferably one after the other on a dock on a lake in the middle of Maine.
The idea of cherry pie sounded complex and intricate...something that, in baking, I tend to stay away from. But I wanted to give Jeremy a special treat to come home to, what with his 12 hour days and all, slaving in the kitchen for the greater good of Washington, DC and it's patrons.
I stumbled upon the popular food blog Chez Pim, and quickly became obsessed. I had to try one of her creations, and it had to be soon. Funnily enough, that day's recipe was for Spiced Cherry Pie.
So, I rounded up some ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg from my pantry, and was off to the market for ground ginger. Then I realized I didn't have any clove at all so I looted my landlord's pantry for ground clove (don't worry, I texted him first... The only thing I've ever stolen was a glue stick at age 8 from a craft store but cried in the parking lot, took the sweaty stick out of my pocket and my mom promptly marched me inside to return it).
The idea of cherry pie was intimidating enough, but spiced added a whole new dimension of scary. What if I over-spiced it, which I tend to do when baking apple pies? What do they mean when they say a "pinch" of clove? I always worry about little details like this. Your pinch may be more of a tablespoon whereas mine is half a teaspoon. You may have bigger fingers than me. Or vice versa. Details, details. They always plague me. In cooking, I rarely follow a recipe. Feel a little more into garlic today? Tweak, tweak, tweak and we're good to go. Baking would have none of that, thank you very much. A pinch is a pinch is a pinch. I wasn't about to over-spice a perfectly good cherry pie. Especially since 2 lbs of cherries in Washington DC costs like twenty three bucks. Exaggeration is a writer's prerogative.
Throwing caution to the wind, I started snapping those stems (and those photos). I started pitting. It started to look like a scene out of a horror film, but nary a cherry was left with a pit.
Come see...
My variation of the spiced cherry pie turned out delicious, even though I used pre-made pie crusts from a box (sigh). I attempted my own pie crust for a French Apple Pie a few weeks ago, and decided I had a ways to go until my pie crust was perfected. I really didn't want to ruin this pie. Apples are cheaper than cherries.
Definitely check out Pim's website by clicking on the link above. She has her own sturdy, no-fail pie crust, or as she calls it, "the one pie dough to rule them all". I would have tried her recipe, but I still need to pick up a pastry scraper and pastry brush. Next time.
Afterthoughts on the pie: Jeremy thought it was over-spiced, but my landlord said that the crust was excellent and the clove was a nice touch. Like a little elf, I had left him a slice on his counter top at 3 am when the pie was cool enough to slice (3 hours after removing from the oven). I thought it was divine, and I liked the spice. It went well with the cherries. I love nutmeg, so any excuse to use it in a dish besides just opening its little jar and smelling it from time to time, is good enough for me. I was worried that with 2 lbs of the sweet Bing cherries and the cup of sugar, it would be way too sweet but the lemon and spices cut the sweet.
Happy pie eating,
Shannon
