Homemade Cherry Pie Filling
It's cherry season here in Germany... and they are EVERYWHERE! Last week I think my husband and father ate at least 10lbs in cherries. All of them bought from a little German lady and her cherry stand on the side of the road here in Bavaria. Yeah, they're that good. And yeah... I got more....
It's cherry season here in Germany... and they are EVERYWHERE! Last week I think my husband and father ate at least 10lbs in cherries. All of them bought from a little German lady and her cherry stand on the side of the road here in Bavaria. Yeah, they're that good. And yeah... I got more.
Last night, my friend Mareile brought over 6 cups of fresh cherries from the cherry tree in her back yard. More fresh, local, German cherries. This time... I hid them from my husband and father so I could make pie. Cherry pie. Oh yeah.... fresh cherry pie.
Granted... I've never made cherry pie before. BUT, I have made plenty of other berry pies so I figured this couldn't be too difficult. And I was right. It wasn't hard. It was pretty darn easy.
Although... pitting the cherries proved to be a challenge. I didn't have a pitter. LUCKILY one of my fabulous readers suggested I use a straw to pit the cherries. Which is exactly what I did. I took my green straw from my Starbucks reusable iced coffee cup and poked it through each cherry to get the pit out. Worked like magic! I got cherry juice all over my fingers and table... but it was so worth it. Took about 15 minutes to pit 6-7 cups of cherries. YUM!
Now... you could prepare this filling while the cherries are ripe and in season and then store it in your freezer until you're ready to turn it into pie. OR you could just pour the filling into a pie crust and use it right away like I did.
And like I've said a million times before... I don't make pie crusts. I suck at it.... so I used a premade crust. (Which I happen to enjoy, actually!)
CHERRY PIE FOR THE WIN!
Homemade Cherry Pie Filling
Ingredients
- 6-7 cups fresh cherries, pitted and clean
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- 4 tablespoon corn starch
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Tbps Lemoncino liquor (or fresh squeezed lemon juice)
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Prepare the cherries by cleaning and pitting them. Set aside.
- In a large pot on medium heat, whisk together the sugar, water, corn starch, salt, almond & vanilla extracts and the Lemoncino. Continue whisking until the sugar and corn starch have dissolved completely.
- Add the cherries and gently fold into the liquid. Cook on medium to medium-low heat for about 10 minutes until the liquid thickens. Frequently stir the cherries, making sure not to break or crush them. The mixture might like to stick to the bottom of the pan if it's too hot... so make sure to scrape the bottom often.
- If you're using the filling for a pie right away, pour the mixture into a prepared pie crust. Bake at 425 F degrees for about 45 minutes or until the center of the pie is bubbling.
- If you're using the filling at a later date, allow to cool in the pan and then transfer to an airtight container. Refrigerate for up to one week or freeze for several months.
Love it!! The straw works great... one should be careful as cherry juice is often like black berry and can stain 🙂 Your pie looks amazing and I bet it taste better than it even looks!