This cherry pie recipe uses 5 cups of pitted sweet cherries cooked into a thick, glossy filling on the stove, then baked in an all butter crust under a woven lattice. It bakes at 400°F for 20 minutes and then at 350°F for 35 to 40 minutes, and one 9 inch pie cuts into 12 slices.
The step that makes the difference is cooking the filling first and letting it cool before it meets the pastry. The cornstarch sets on the stove, not in the oven, so the slices come out of the dish standing up instead of sliding into a red puddle.
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Try the Recipe Converter →Five Cups of Cherries, One 9 Inch Pie
- Pan: a 9 inch pie dish, set on a baking sheet
- Cherries: 5 cups pitted sweet cherries, fresh or frozen (roughly 2 pounds whole fresh cherries before pitting)
- Thickener: ¼ cup cornstarch with ¾ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and ½ teaspoon almond extract
- Time: 30 minutes prep, about 1 hour of cooking and baking, 2 hours cooling; the dough needs at least 1 hour in the fridge
- Yield: 12 slices
Sweet Cherries or Sour Cherries?
The amounts here are written for sweet cherries such as Bing, Lambert or Rainier. With ¾ cup sugar and a squeeze of lemon, the filling tastes like the fruit, sweet with a little sharpness at the end.
Sour cherries (Montmorency and other tart pie cherries) make a brighter, puckery pie. Many bakers raise the sugar to about 1 cup for them. Cook the filling, let a spoonful cool on a plate, and taste it before you add more. Sugar is easy to stir in while the pan is still warm and impossible to take out later.
Baking With Frozen Cherries
Frozen sweet cherries work well and cost less outside June and July. Thaw them in a colander and let them drain before they go in the pan, so the ice water does not thin the filling. Then cook exactly as written: the filling is ready when it bubbles and turns glossy, frozen or fresh. If you only want the filling for cakes and bars, my homemade cherry pie filling is written for that job.
Cooking the Filling Before It Meets the Crust
Put the cherries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, almond extract and salt in a medium saucepan and set it over medium heat. Stir often. For the first few minutes it looks cloudy and loose as the cherries give up their juice.
After 10 to 15 minutes it changes. The juice turns from cloudy to clear red, thickens enough to coat a spoon, and bubbles slowly. Let it bubble for a minute once it reaches that point. Cornstarch only thickens fully near a boil, so a filling taken off too early looks fine in the pan and runs once the pie is cut.
Take it off the heat and let it cool completely. Spread it on a plate or in a wide bowl and it cools faster. Hot filling softens the cold butter in the bottom crust, and that is where a pale, soggy base starts.
An All Butter Dough for Bottom and Lattice
Mix 2½ cups flour with ½ teaspoon salt. Work in 1 cup cold, cubed butter with a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs with some pea sized bits of butter left. Those bits melt in the oven, make steam and give you flaky layers.
Add the ice water a tablespoon at a time. You will need 6 to 8. Stop when a handful holds together when you squeeze it. Too much water makes the crust tough and shrinky. My pie crust recipe walks through this step with more detail if pastry is new to you.
Split the dough in half, shape two discs, wrap them and chill for at least 1 hour. This is a good time to cook the filling, so both are ready together. The discs keep for 2 days in the fridge if you want to split the work over two evenings.
Rolling and Fitting the Bottom Crust
Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Roll one disc from the center outward into a 12 inch circle, giving it a quarter turn every few passes so it stays round and does not stick. Lay it in the 9 inch dish and ease it into the corners without stretching it, since stretched dough pulls back as it bakes.
Weaving the Lattice Without Tearing It
Spread the cooled filling into the crust. Roll the second disc into another 12 inch circle and cut it into 1 inch strips. If the kitchen is warm, slide the strips onto a tray and chill them for 10 minutes first. Cold strips lift cleanly and weave without stretching.
Lay half of the strips across the pie in one direction. Fold back every other strip, lay a strip the other way, fold the first ones back down, and repeat until the top is woven. Trim the overhang, press the edges together and crimp with your fingers or a fork.
Beat the egg with the tablespoon of milk, brush it lightly over the lattice, and scatter the coarse sugar on top if you like a bit of crunch.
Cherry Pie Bake Time at 400°F, Then 350°F
Set the pie on a baking sheet to catch drips. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes to set the crust, then turn the oven down to 350°F (175°C) and bake for another 35 to 40 minutes. That is 55 to 60 minutes in total.
It is done when the lattice is deep golden and the filling bubbles thickly in the gaps in the middle of the pie, not only around the edge. Bubbles at the center mean the filling is hot all the way through. If the rim browns long before that, cover just the edge with a ring of foil and keep baking.
Cool the pie on a rack for at least 2 hours before you slice it. The filling firms up as it cools, and a pie cut hot runs no matter how well it was made.
When the Bottom Is Soggy or the Slices Run
- Runny slices: the filling never bubbled long enough on the stove, or the pie was cut warm. Next time cook it until clear and glossy and give the pie its full 2 hours.
- Pale, soft bottom crust: the filling went in warm, or the pie came out before the center bubbled. Bake on the lowest rack for the last 20 minutes.
- Crust shrank down the sides: the dough was stretched into the dish or was not chilled long enough.
- Edges dark, middle pale: shield the rim with foil after the first 20 minutes at 400°F.
Keeping Leftover Cherry Pie
Cover the pie and keep it at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the fridge for up to 5 days. Warm a slice at 325°F for about 10 minutes and the crust crisps up again. Baked pie also freezes well, whole or in wrapped slices; thaw it overnight in the fridge.
A scoop of vanilla ice cream is the obvious partner. For something colder and brighter, serve it with cherry rosé sorbet.
Short Answers About Cherry Pie
Can I use canned cherry pie filling instead?
Yes. You need about 4 to 5 cups, which is two 21 ounce cans. Skip the stovetop step and spread it straight into the crust, then bake the same way.
Do I need almond extract?
No, but ½ teaspoon makes cherries taste more like cherries. Leave it out if anyone at the table has a nut allergy.
If you still have cherries left after pitting, use them in cherry pie bars, a cherry dump cake, my cherry cheesecake brownies or a bowl of cherry almond dip. The rest of the fruit pies are in the pie recipes collection, including a blueberry pie made the same way.
Cherry Pie Recipe
This cherry pie recipe is a homemade sweet cherry pie made with 5 cups of pitted cherries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, almond extract and an all butter crust with a woven lattice top. It bakes in a 9 inch dish at 400°F for 20 minutes and then at 350°F for 35 to 40 minutes, and cuts into 12 slices with a flaky crust and a thick, glossy filling. The filling is cooked on the stove first until it bubbles and turns clear, then cooled, so the slices hold their shape and the bottom crust stays crisp. Serve this cherry pie warm with vanilla ice cream for summer cookouts, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Frozen cherries work too when thawed and drained. Keep it 2 days at room temperature or 5 days in the fridge.
Ingredients
- FOR THE CHERRY FILLING
- Five cups fresh or frozen sweet cherries, pitted
- Three-quarters cup granulated sugar
- One-quarter cup cornstarch
- Two tablespoons lemon juice
- Half teaspoon almond extract
- Quarter teaspoon salt
- FOR THE PIE CRUST
- Two and one-half cups all-purpose flour
- One cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- Half teaspoon salt
- Six to eight tablespoons ice water
- FOR ASSEMBLY
- One egg, beaten
- One tablespoon milk (optional)
- One tablespoon coarse sugar (optional)
Instructions
- MAKE THE DOUGH: A large bowl holds flour and salt, then cold butter gets cut in with a pastry cutter or fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Ice water joins gradually, one tablespoon at a time, mixed gently until the dough just comes together.
- CHILL THE DOUGH: The dough divides into two equal portions, each shaped into a disc, wrapped in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for at least 1 hour.
- MAKE THE CHERRY FILLING: A medium saucepan combines five cups pitted sweet cherries, three-quarters cup granulated sugar, one-quarter cup cornstarch, two tablespoons lemon juice, half teaspoon almond extract, and a quarter teaspoon salt. The mixture cooks over medium heat, stirred often, until it thickens and begins to bubble after about 10–15 minutes. The pan then moves off the heat to cool completely.
- ROLL OUT THE BOTTOM CRUST: The oven preheats to 400 °F (200 °C). One chilled dough disc rolls out on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch circle before settling into a 9-inch pie dish, pressed gently against bottom and sides.
- ADD THE FILLING: The cooled cherry filling spreads evenly into the prepared bottom crust.
- MAKE THE LATTICE TOP: The second dough disc rolls into a 12-inch circle, then slices into one-inch-wide strips. Half of the strips lie horizontally over the pie, while the remaining strips weave vertically to form a lattice.
- TRIM AND CRIMP: Excess dough trims away and edges press together, then fingers or a fork create a decorative crimp.
- APPLY EGG WASH: A small bowl holds the beaten egg and milk, if using. The lattice receives a light brush of egg wash followed by a sprinkle of coarse sugar, if desired.
- BAKE THE PIE: The pie sits on a baking sheet to catch drips, baking at 400 °F (200 °C) for 20 minutes. The oven temperature then lowers to 350 °F (175 °C) for an additional 35–40 minutes until the crust turns golden and the filling bubbles.
- COOL BEFORE SERVING: The pie rests at room temperature for at least 2 hours, allowing the filling to set before slicing and serving.
Notes
Cook the filling until it bubbles and turns glossy and clear, then cool it completely before it goes into the crust; warm filling makes a soggy bottom. Frozen cherries work when thawed and drained first. If you use sour cherries, taste the cooked filling and add more sugar as needed. For a cleaner lattice, chill the strips for 10 minutes before weaving. The pie is done when the filling bubbles in the center of the lattice; cover the rim with foil if it browns too fast. Cool at least 2 hours before slicing. Store covered up to 2 days at room temperature or 5 days in the fridge, or freeze wrapped slices.
Nutrition Information
Yield
12Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 412Total Fat 20gSaturated Fat 11gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 56mgSodium 203mgCarbohydrates 55gFiber 2gSugar 24gProtein 5g
