Homemade Cherry Pie

I blogged last week about my favorite Apple Pie Recipe, so this week I decided to blog about my all-time favorite pie recipe. Nana's homemade cherry pie has been my favorite dessert ever since I was little, and I don't anticipate that ever changing. One thing you will notice with these pie recipes is they all use a homemade crust. I know I know, you can just buy a pre-made crust and skip the hassle, but yall, the homemade crust is what makes the pie every time. The filling is a cinch and won't take much time at all, so use that extra time and make a crust. You won't regret it!

Ingredients:

Pie Filling:
1 can of cherries packed in water
1 cup sugar
2 T flour
1 T butter
1 t almond extract
red food coloring to enhance color

Crust:
2 cups flour
1 cup crisco
1 t salt
4 T ice water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Begin making your crust by mixing flour and salt. Cut in crisco with a fork and add water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing well after each. Rub flour on your hands so the dough won't stick together. Pat dough in a ball and cut in half with a knife for a top and bottom pie crust. The bottom crust needs to be slightly larger, so make one half a little bigger than the other. Roll larger portion of dough onto a pastry cloth or paper towel with flour, and place dough in a pie plate. Reference my Chicken Pot Pie recipe to see step by step pictures for making the crust.
3.  In a large pan, mix sugar and flour. Add cherries, food coloring, almond extract, and butter. Bring to a simmer just to melt the butter.
4. Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell and cover with upper crust. Crimp edges and sprinkle a little sugar on your top crust.
5. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 20 minutes of until lightly brown.
6. Let cool and enjoy!

I mentioned in my apple pie post that Nana always cuts in our initials with a fork. This is a pie she made for Danielle and I, so she put a "C" and a "D" on it for us. Little things like that just make my heart smile :).