Latticed Cherry Pie

I've always wanted to make a cherry pie. But there are several things that got in my way. I don't have a cherry pitter. I don't have the patience or dexterity to pit cherries by hand or to make fancy crusts. I don't like to use canned pie filler for homemade pies. I am notoriously bad with fruit pies. However, I am a stubborn Latina who likes a challenge so I made one anyways.

My good friend and partner-in-crime Lisa came over on Thursday and helped me make this. Thank you Lisa!

Ingredients:

4 cups of frozen pitted dark cherries, thawed
1 cup of sugar
3 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch
2 frozen Mrs. Smith pie shells, thawed
Milk

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Properly thaw the cherries and drain juice. Then add the cup of sugar and let them sit. Then drain more juice. You should try to get as much of the excess juice out of them as possible. Then add your 3 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch.

Poke holes in the crust with a fork. If you don't do this, air bubbles will form during the baking proess and you will get bumps or cracks. The holes allow some air to escape. If you want, parbake this in the oven for 5 minutes to give you a head start.

Add cherry pie filling.

Take your other pie shell and roll it out onto a floured surface. Cut 9 or 10 strips. Use the long ones for the center and shorter ones for the edges. To create the lattice form just lay down 4 or 5 of the strips one way. Then weave in the other strips, one by one in the opposite direction. Brush with the top with milk.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the crust is nice and brown. Let cool for a good hour so as to let the juices in the pie settle. Cherries are particularly juice and you don't want to eat hot pastry and cherry soup! Enjoy.

Cherry Pie