Tart Cherry Pie with Lattice Crust Recipe
Canned tart cherries were my introduction to shopping at Walmart. Several years ago, I became obsessed with making a tart cherry pie for Thanksgiving. It was my missing link. A tart cherry pie would make my Thanksgivings complete. But I could not find tart cherries anywhere – not canned, not frozen (unless I wanted to pay $100 in shipping from Michigan), and certainly not fresh. Until my search landed me at Walmart and led me to become a regular Walmart shopper.
I’ve posted about Walmart before, whether it was in grocery store stories years ago, or more recently to share about Walmart’s membership program, Walmart+, which has become my ace in the hole. Since I became a Walmart+ member, my life has gotten a little easier. Unlimited free delivery with $35 in purchases from my local Walmart store! (Restrictions apply.) Free shipping from Walmart.com and no minimum purchase! (Excludes most Marketplace items, locations, & freight surcharges.) And now, with my Walmart+ membership, I get first dibs to shop the hottest online Black Friday deals 4 hours before everyone else! (Not available for trial members though. While supplies last.) Too good to be true? Trust me, I am shopping from Walmart all the time. Click here to check it out.
Let’s discuss this tart cherry pie which is a Thanksgiving favorite, very different from a sweet cherry pie, and a thousand times better. You know my desserts are not overly sweet and this is no exception. I know sweet cherries are easier to find, but “sour” or “tart” cherries make the best pies. The flavor is a perfect sweet-tart and they are also much brighter in color than sweet cherries (and higher in antioxidants) resulting in a beautiful, vibrant pie.
Everything I needed for this pie from the canned tart cherries to the organic flour and Kerrygold butter I ordered using my Walmart+ membership and had it delivered on the same day from my local Walmart store. Also in that same order was dish soap, toilet paper, almond flour, So Delicious ice cream, organic lemons, celery and carrots. Then I ordered from Walmart.com some Tonnino tuna (best price anywhere!) and Hubs’s favorite yellow mustard. I saved money, saved time, and saved the aggravation of dealing with LA traffic.
I digress. A lattice crust is my preference with a tart cherry pie because you can see the beautiful color of the cherries. I have given you step-by-step photos below, but you can do a traditional top crust instead like I use for my Perfect Apple Pie, or a streusel top like for my Apple and Tart Cherry Pie with Crumble Topping. Let me just say, the previously mentioned Apple and Tart Cherry Pie is an imposter pie since I used dried tart cherries with the apples. This was pre-discovering canned tart cherries at Walmart.
If you are looking for a new Thanksgiving dessert recipe, look no further than this pie. Make the pie crusts now if you want and freeze them. Or buy a premade crust. Do whatever you need to do to make your life easier and enjoy the Thanksgiving process. In the meantime, check out Walmart+ if you like the idea of NOT making multiple trips to the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving while still getting high quality groceries for the same (great) prices you would get in-store.
This is my last Thanksgiving recipe before the big day, plus one more weekly Thanksgiving organizing post this Thursday. If you need some organizing help, click here to purchase my 2022 Thanksgiving ebook with over 100 recipes and every possible Thanksgiving tip I have! If you make this recipe or any of my recipes, please tag me on Instagram so I can see your beautiful creations @pamelasalzman #pamelasalzman!
- 1 Recipe for pastry for a double crust pie (see next page) or 2 frozen pie doughs (get the kind that are rolled out but not already in the pie plate.
- For the filling:
- 3 14.5-ounce cans or 13-ounce jars of red tart or sour cherries packed in water or cherry juice = 5 cups (drain the juice but save some - see below)
- cherries*
- ¼ cup juice drained from the jarred/canned cherries
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract (you can use a little more for a more pronounced almond flavor)
- ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- ⅔ cup cane sugar or maple sugar*
- ¼ cup tapioca starch/flour (best option), cornstarch or arrowroot or 1⁄3 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 egg yolk + 1 Tablespoon cream or milk
- 1-2 teaspoons unbleached organic cane sugar
- Arrange a rack on the bottom of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Roll one disk of pie dough on a lightly floured countertop, regularly checking to make sure the disk is not sticking to the counter. Roll the dough to be 1-inch larger than the diameter of the top of the pie plate. Flip the pie plate over on top of the rolled out dough to check. Fit it into the pie plate and cover it loosely with the plastic wrap used to wrap it initially. Refrigerate.
- Place the cherries, reserved ¼ cup cherry juice, almond and vanilla extracts and lemon juice in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, tapioca starch, and salt. Add the dry mix to the cherries and toss well to combine.
- Roll the second disc out to a 12 inch circle. Cut the dough into 8 strips of the same width. If you are comfortable with making a lattice top, feel free to cut the pastry into more/thinner strips. Pour the cherry mixture into the chilled pie dough in the pie plate. Dot with the 1 Tablespoon of butter. Place 4 strips of dough over the fruit, spaced evenly apart. Now weave the lattice: fold two alternating strips back halfway and lay a strip crosswise over the two flat strips. Unfold the two strips that were folded back, then fold back the other two alternating strips, and lay another strip crosswise across the flat strips. Repeat with the remaining two strips by folding back two alternating strips at a time.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and cream. Carefully brush the top of the pie crust with the egg wash and sprinkle the crust with sugar. I don’t normally brush the outer crust with egg wash so it doesn’t brown too quickly.
- Place the pie on a baking sheet (lined with foil for easy cleanup) and bake on the bottom rack for 40 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 375 F and bake for another 20-30 minutes. At this point the pie juices should be actively bubbling all around and the crust should be golden. If not, leave in the oven until both of these are achieved. If the crust is getting too dark, tent with foil.
- Allow to cool at least 4 hours before serving, but preferably longer. The pie can be made a day in advance and left at room temperature. After two days, refrigerate, covered.
Frozen/defrosted sour cherries: omit the juice
More cherries: if you have a very deep dish pie plate, you can add another jar/can of cherries totaling 4 jars/cans. You would increase the sugar to 3⁄4 cup and the juice to 1⁄3 cup. You can increase the tapioca to 1⁄3 cup.
A sweeter pie: for 3 jars/cans of cherries, increase sugar to 3⁄4 cup; for 4 jars/cans, increase sugar to 1 cup.
Vegan: use organic Earth Balance and cut the salt in the crust in half. Dot the filling with your favorite plant butter. Brush the crust with oat milk.
Gluten-free: the best option is to use the King Arthur Gluten-free Pie Crust Mix. If you are willing to make it from scratch with multiple flours, this is the best homemade GF pastry recipe I have
used: https://bojongourmet.com/gluten-free-pie-crust-whole-grain/
Pâte Brisée (pie dough for double pie crust)
2 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour or white spelt flour
1⁄2 Tablespoon cane sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon size pieces 5-8 Tablespoons ice water
1. Place the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse a couple times until blended.
2. Add the butter to the flour and pulse until the mixture resembles peas.
3. Pour 5 Tablespoons of ice water on top of the flour mixture and pulse about 10 times. Avoiding
the blade, carefully grab a small handful of dough and squeeze together. If the dough holds together without crumbling, it’s ready to be formed into a disc. If it’s too dry, pulse in another few teaspoons of ice water until dough holds together.
4. Transfer dough to a piece of plastic wrap and bring dough together to form a ball. Divide in half and shape into two disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes at which point it will be ready to roll out. Or you can keep the dough refrigerated for 2-3 days, or in the freezer, well wrapped for 2-3 months. (Wrap in plastic wrap and place in a ziploc bag. Defrost in the refrigerator.) If dough has been chilled for more than 2 hours, allow to sit on the countertop a few minutes before rolling.
2 Comments
I was just re reading this recipe and saw there were no comments about how absolutely amazing and delicious this pie is! This year I’m trying it as a crisp (because I am being lazy and not making another batch of crust haha). If you are looking for a different and showstopper pie, this is it! Especially with the red at this time of year. Another winner, Pamela!
Thanks, Joan! It truly is a showstopper pie. Let me know how this turns out as a crisp. Sounds delicious!