Cherry Pie, Episode 3--Using Frozen Cherries and Scratch Crust Ingredients

*** 1/24/2017
Accompanying video segments now available at YouTube—
"Cherry Pie—Section 1 of 3, Overview and Fruit Filling Preparation"
"Cherry Pie—Section 2 of 3, Pie Dough Preparation"
"Cherry Pie—Section 3 of 3, Pie Assembly and Baking"
Playlist: "Cherry Pie (Using Frozen Cherries and Scratch Crust Ingredients, All Three Sections"

The writeup is finally here! It deviates from my usual recipe articles of including imperative steps, which could make this article REALLY long and maybe more difficult to follow than going to my video(s). The process has two separate stages and the convergence stage: fruit filling preparation, pie dough preparation, and pie assembly/baking. Although the number of ingredients are few, the processes require time, timing, and order. If you try this recipe, you should first read the article and view the video (three sections) thoroughly.

The ingredients are few:

• Cherry pie filling: 1 pound frozen cherries, 1 C granulated sugar, 1/4 C cornstarch, 1/2 C water
• Pie crust: 2 1/4 C flour, 1 T powdered sugar (granulated ok), 3/4 t salt, up to 3/4 C water

Historically, for recipes I've posted, I've listed required equipment. In this case, because bakers' tool preferences can vary widely, the video sections provide the best visual guidelines. The following actions are a few examples of deviating from traditional pie-making norms.

• For the pie filling, I coated frozen cherries and granulated sugar in a bowl, chilling them overnight and occasionally stirring to get the cherries to juice up. The cherries bag includes thawing instructions that might speed up the process. Some people prefer fresh cherries that they de-stem and pit. Others use canned or jar cherries, which require different processes.
• For mixing of pie dough ingredients, I used a tilt-head stand mixer for ease. In the past, I have used a pastry blender. Some people prefer to use two forks.
• For cutting the butter, I used a combination of french fry cutter and butter knife. I've seen videos for various butter shapes from pat slices to butter cube in its entirety.
• For rolling out of pie dough, I used a Joseph rolling pin on a cutting board. Other bakers use various rolling pins and work surfaces.
• For fruit pie venting, required for steam escape during baking, I latticed the top crust using a pizza cutter and an inverted cooling rack. (Numerous sites show different methodologies for latticing.) Typical top crusts have slits, which are faster to implement.

One picture is worth a thousand words, and the video is worth a lot more. The entire video turns out to be 2.5G and 26:10 long. To make upload more manageable, I split it into sections 1, 2, and 3. You can view them as a playlist or as standalone segments. Title screens within the sections display text for preparing the fruit filling, preparing the pie dough, and assembling the pie and baking it.

Video Section Title: Cherry Pie (Using Frozen Cherries and Scratch Crust Ingredients)
Section 1, Overview and Fruit Filling Preparation

1. Processing the frozen cherries
2. Fruit mix overnight
3. Draining the cherries
4. Mixing cornstarch and water for making the fruit sauce
5. Cooking the cornstarch and sauce together
6. Folding the cooked sauce into the cherries

Video Section Title: Cherry Pie (Using Frozen Cherries and Scratch Crust Ingredients)
Section 2, Pie Dough Preparation

1. Pie crust ingredients (overall intro info)
2. Measuring pie crust dry ingredients
3. Mixing the dry ingredients together
4. Cutting the butter
5. Stirring the cut butter chunks into the dry ingredients
6. Mixing water into the chilled dough
7. Preparing to chill the mixed dough for an hour
8. Retrieving the chilled dough for flouring, flattening, folding, and rotating it a few times before wrapping it for more chilling
9. Retrieving the chilled dough, dividing it, and rolling out the bottom pie crust
10. Preheating the oven for 350 degrees, flouring the surface, and rolling out the top crust

Video Section Title: Cherry Pie (Using Frozen Cherries and Scratch Crust Ingredients)
Section 3, Pie Assembly and Baking

1. Cutting the top crust dough into lattice strips
2. Pouring the cherries into the pie pan, then assembling the lattice strips
3. Brushing egg wash on unbaked pie
4. Weighing the egg-washed, unbaked pie before baking it for 30 minutes
5. Putting a pie shield on the pie after baking it for 30 minutes
6. Baking complete (60 total minutes)--moving the pie from the oven to a cooling rack
7. Revisiting latticing: Simulating cutting lattice strips differently using wax paper and pizza cutter
8. Detailed article: Cherry Pie, Episode 3--Using Frozen Cherries and Scratch Crust Ingredients http://whilldtkwriter.blogspot.com/2017/01/cherry-pie-episode-3-using-frozen.html

Future Pie Thoughts
I've made three cherry pies in the recent past. For making a more perfect pie, hopefully using less time, I'll try the following actions:

• Instead of overnight thawing of cherries and sugar, I'll try using the microwave oven, carefully monitoring and periodically stirring.
• Weigh out my two pie doughs before rolling them out. I have tended to barely cover the pan with the bottom shell, and rolled out too much dough for the top shell (lattice).
• Buy and use a pastry mat that has concentric circles as visual guides for pie shell diameters. The circles should help me stay inside the "lines". Related, for my third pie, I used an Oneida cutting board for my dough surface. It was OK, but the board slid around, even with a somewhat damp kitchen cloth. The silicone mats are reported to stay put during use. Possible candidate mats:
• "Silicone Large Pastry Mat With Measurements"
• "Joseph Joseph Silicone Non-Slip Pastry Mat with Measurements, Roll-Up, Green"
• Re-view videos about latticing the day before or the day of making a pie to refamiliarize myself with the weaving process.
• Bake the pie for 65 minutes total instead of 60. The bottom shells were cooked, but still a little pale.

Visit blog articles of my first and second cherry pie learning processes, which also include helpful links about scratch pie making.

• "Cherry Pie, Episode 1--the Newish Baker Challenge"
• "Cherry Pie, Episode 2--Oops, Awws, and Ahhs"

Cherry Pie, Episode 1--the Newish Baker Challenge

This article is an assessment of a cherry pie I made last month. I'd not made a scratch pie in many years—scratch meaning pie dough from scratch ingredients and fresh filling. My recollection of the most recent crusts were frozen pre-made ones in pans or rolled up disks, all of which required thawing. They were really convenient! As for filling, the previous cherry pie was years ago that required two cans of filling. Or maybe they were cans of fruit that I needed to make cornstarch sauce.

Anyway, I wanted to try my new tilt-head stand mixer for pie crust, hoping to save shoulders and arms from elbow-grease effort of a manual pastry blender. I pored over numerous sites for guidance for pie making, particularly crust ingredients and processes. For the cherry filling, I decided I'd use frozen cherries rather than fresh that would need pitting, or canned, whether they were pre-sauced or required fluid thickening.

The big-picture pie-making process is as follows:

1. Acquire two pie crusts or make your own. Ingredients are flour, fat, salt, sugar (optional), and water. The amounts vary from recipe to recipe. The sequence of additions and process are similar among recipes.
2. Acquire filling or make from ingredients you buy. For fruit pies, ingredients are mainly fruit, sugar, cornstarch or other thickening agents, and fluid. The sequence of additions and process are similar among recipes, but can vary widely.
3. Assemble (crust in pan, then filling, then "vented" top crust), and bake. Single-crust pies can require pre-baking. Lattice-top pies provide venting as well as decoration. Temperatures and durations vary widely among recipes. Some recipes include extra efforts and more items than others. A pie crust shield or foil at the rim is helpful for avoiding edge overbaking.

My pie tasted good, but had some issues that I hope to improve my process for the next pass. Before I get into the next-time discussion, I'm noting some innovations I implemented.

Home Innovations
During my research of pie making, I thought of implements that I had that might help in my pie making.

 Using a Vintage French Fry Cutter for Cutting Butter
I saw various approaches to butter use—tablespoon slices, pat-size slices, 1 cm (.39”) cubes, and whole-stick. I myself used a hand-held French fry cutter and butter knife to easily cut butter into cubes as follows:

1. Halved one stick so three sections are small enough to fit the cutter sideways.
2. Pushed the cutter halfway down.
3. Used the butter knife to cut at the grid wires.
4. Pushed the cutter farther down.
5. Used the knife to finish pushing the rest of the butter from the opposite side.

Using Two-Color Alternating-Stripe Cutting Board for Dough Surface
I used a cutting board (12” x 13”) that had alternating dark and light wood sections. The size was helpful for easily rotating the dough 90° at a time during rolling out time. The stripes, although not consistent widths, were helpful guidelines for cutting the lattice strips.

Post-Pie Implementation Thoughts
The thawed cherries were fragile and required tender treatment when stirring in 1 C sugar. Next time, will stir sugar with the frozen cherries, then refrigerate so the cherries juice up and thaw overnight. Stirring will be minimal the next day.

The baked pie crust seemed normal the first day, but seemed tougher in the three subsequent days. I might not have handled the dough as well as I could have. Next time, I will try improving methodology and equipment.

• Fold and flatten dough as shown in "Pie Crust Recipe Tutorial Demonstration: How to Make Tender, Flaky Pie Crust".
• Use my newly acquired Joseph adjustable rolling pin. This roller has measurements for dough width and circular end gauges for dough thickness.

The latticing was awkward, and I ended up with three strips for one axis and five in the other axis. Next time I’ll cut 12 strips and be more methodical about weaving them. (For marking strips, I'm going to use a cooling rack and pizza cutter—press the rack's rack wires along the top crust, then cut the strips.) Some sites for latticing guidance:

• "How To Bake Fruit Pies"
• “How to Weave a Lattice Top for Pies”
• “How to Make a Lattice Pie Crust”
• "Pie Crust Recipe Tutorial Demonstration: How to Make Tender, Flaky Pie Crust"

The fruit sauce pooled somewhat at the bottom of the pie, even on the fourth day. Next time, I’ll drain the fruit liquid more thoroughly into the saucepan and be sure that the cornstarch sauce thickens up well.

Additional helpful links—admittedly mostly crust-centric:

• "How to Make a Perfect Pie Crust with Jill"
• "Tender Flaky Pie Crust in mixer"(Eh, could ignore call for different flours and milk powder.)
• "Best Ever Pie Crust"
• "How To Make A Pie Crust, Step-By-Step"
• "10 More Things You Should Know About Pie"
• "All About Pie Dough"
• "Cherry Pastry Filling Recipe ~ Noreen's Kitchen"

Note: Pie pan size selection will greatly influence the amount of ingredients and time required for baking. The pie pan I used was an 8" Marie Callender metal pan (~1 1/2 pints water capacity), which was a good size for my fruit filling (1 pound rozen cherries processed with sugar, cornstarch, and water).

Visit blog articles of my other two cherry pie learning processes.

• "Cherry Pie, Episode 2--Oops, Awws, and Ahhs"
• "Cherry Pie, Episode 3--Using Frozen Cherries and Scratch Crust Ingredients"