My mama’s been in town and one thing my mama has wanted to do is go and pick berries. When I’d told her that Butchie and I went strawberry picking she was incredibly jealous. Since we’ve already done all the touristy things in DC, it was an easy call!
We drove out to Butler
As soon as I saw the tart cherries I thought of Butchie. Talk about a love of tart cherries! [All things tart, really. Cranberry, lemon, kiwi…. –B.] But rather than call her up and brag – though I did consider that – I decided to pick a lot more cherries for us to make a pie! [Good thing too. A gloating phone call with no promise of pie might have destroyed our friendship. –B.]
Baking was a little messy. Did I say a little? That’s a lie. It was so messy I have already blocked it from my memory. Pitting cherries had my hands so stained I felt like I was in a low budget horror film. Between that and the torrential downpour I was ready for Alfred Hitchcock to make a cameo appearance. And poor JP and Claire were on a motorcycle! But it was an interesting evening. I’m still laughing over watching the boys try to figure out how to add ingredients to the stand mixer while it was running. Nothing better than sitting back with Butchie and Claire and watching the menfolk attempt to bake on their own. [In their defense, they eventually figured it out. –B.]
Buttermilk Pie Crust
Adapted from Epicurious
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup chilled unsalted butter, diced
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
Combine flour, sugar and salt in large bowl. Add butter. Cut in using hands or pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. (Or you could use a stand mixer or food processor if that's your preferred method!) Add buttermilk and stir with fork until moist clumps form.
Press together to form dough. Divide dough in half. Gather dough into balls; flatten into disks. Wrap separately and chill 1 hour.
Place a piece of parchment paper inside the pie shell. Bake at 400°F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edge are golden brown. Remove the weights and parchment after 5 minutes of baking.
Fresh Cherries Pie
Buttermilk pie crust or your favorite!
4 cups fresh cherries, pitted
1 cup white sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
Roll out dough and mold into either a 9 inch pie pan or a rectangular tart pan as I used. Bake as you normally would for your pie crust recipe.
Pit the cherries, then arrange most of them in the baked crust. Leave out about 1/3 cup.
Mash remaining berries, and combine with sugar in a medium saucepan. Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Gradually stir cornstarch mixture into boiling the boiling cherries. Reduce heat and simmer mixture until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Allow to cool slightly and then pour mixture over berries in pastry shell.
Chill for several hours before serving.
Enjoy!
