Cherry Pie

As part of our CSA this week, we got sour cherries.  I've never had sour cherries... that I can remember.  I thought I would make a pie with them.  I looked at a lot of recipes, really they were all the same. But I decided to use the baking times and temperatures from my Americans Test Kitchen Cook Book, I know it would not fail me.  This pie was so easy, and so good! I need to get my hands on some more pie cherries.  Here is the recipe I used, mostly just because of the amount of berries I had.

Ingredients:

5 cups sour cherries, pitted.   (I had 6 cups of cherries, and after I had pitted
them, it was closer to 4 1/2)
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
1/4 cup corn starch
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon water

1 recipe for double crust pie crust. 

Directions:

1.Adjust the oven rack to the lowest position and place rimed baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
2. Mix 1 cup of sugar, cornstarch and the salt.
3. Stir the cherries and the almond extract.
4. Stir together the cherries and sugar mixture.
5. Let mixture sit for 20 minutes.

6. Assemble pie.  Lightly brush the top pie crust with the 1 tablespoon of water and then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar.

7. Place the pie on the heated baking sheet and lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees.  bake for 25 minutes.   Rotate the baking sheet, reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and continue to bake for 30-35 minutes, until the crust is a deep brown and the juices are bubbling.

8.  Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

*Pitting the cherries turned out to be really easy.  How to pit sour cherries