Nanie's Cherry Pie

Well, I don't know about you, but I am going to be in the kitchen today. On the list is a cherry pie, an apple pie, St Louis Gooey Butter Cake and IF I shell pecans, a pecan pie for David.
We have two pecan trees in our backyard and I have bags of pecans and have not shelled any for baking yet.

Nanie made the best pies and all of my recipes are from her. I remember once when she was baking for the Fourth of July Block Party she had pies cooling on the back porch. The party was at seven that night and then we would be walking down to the Lake (White Rock Lake) to watch the fireworks.

I was minding my own business sweeping our back porch off when I saw the bushes moving over by Nanie's house. I stopped still hoping not to make a noise. I figured it was a wild animal driven crazy by the smells and had decided it would have pie to eat. For a crazy moment I debated sneaking over with the broom and being ready to clobber the animal with the broom, but remembering my dad's warning about critters wandering up from the lake, I decided to just watch from where I was. I didn't even think about going inside to tell mom or dad. I didn't want to miss spotting the animal.

Seems like I waited for an hour, but it was only a few moments until I saw a dark brown head pop up from the bushes. It was Charlie, David's brother. I saw him look back behind and give a wave. Here came David. He was fast as he stayed low below window view and rounded the steps up to the porch. He grabbed the pie nearest him and was back off the porch in seconds.

I know my mouth fell open. I could not believe those boys were stealing pies we were suppose to eat that night. I was not a kid that "told" on others to get them in trouble, but I knew I would have a word with David later that afternoon. Sure enough about twenty minutes later David joined me on my back porch. I had finished sweeping and was now using the hose to rinse off the porch from any other dirt. David's face was smeared with cherry pie left-overs.

Do you know what I did? I turned the hose on that boy squirting him in the face. He was caught off guard and then tackled me on the porch. I then had cherry pie all over me too. We were both soaking wet, smeared with cherry pie collapsed on the porch laughing when my parents found us.

We both got in trouble. No one every knew Charlie was in on it. David and I took the rap. We had to stay home when the families went to watch the fireworks. I didn't think it was too bad. David had his tablet and he wrote a story about a pirate sailing the Carribean raiding pies from ships. I had my sketch book and I was drawing the pirate ship sailing a flag with a cherry pie on it.
Here is Nanie's famous Cherry Pie Recipe:

Crust:

2-1/2c all-purpose flour

1tsp salt

2T sugar

1 cube + 1T cold unsalted butter, in 1/2” cubes

1/2cup cold leaf lard

4-6T ice water

Mix flour, salt, & sugar in food processor.
Cut in butter cubes with five 1-second pulses.

Add cold lard and pulse four additional 1-second pulses or until butter bits are no bigger than small peas.

Transfer mixture to a medium-sized bowl.
Sprinkle with 3T ice water. Fluff with a fork to mix thoroughly.

Squeeze a handful of dough; if it doesn’t stick together, add remaining water, 1T at a time. (I used the whole 6T.)

Divide dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other (the larger will be the bottom crust).

Flatten each ball into a 6” disc; wrap each separately in plastic wrap; refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll dough out to fit 9” pie plate.

Filling:

2 (14.5oz) cans pitted sour cherries, drained (reserve 1/2c cherry juice)

1c sugar

3 T cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pure almond extract

2 tsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 T unsalted butter, softened

1 egg white

1T sugar

Preheat oven to 500ºF.

Drain cherries, reserving 1/2c juice.

In a medium bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, & salt

In a small bowl, combine cherry juice, almond extract, & lemon juice; add to dry ingredients & mix well.

Add cherries and mix well.

Add softened butter & let stand for 15 minutes.

Pour cherry mixture into prepared pie crust, topping with lattice pie crust.

Whisk together egg white & sugar. Lightly brush lattice crust with sugared-egg wash.

Reduce oven temperature to 425ºF.

Place pie plate on jelly-roll pan, lined with foil, on lowest oven rack.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 375ºF.

Bake for 30 minutes. Cool for two hours or longer.

Lauren
26 November 2008