Flakey Butter Crust Cherry Pie Recipe

A great recipe for a Flakey Butter Crust Cherry Pie

Ingredients

Crust
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 to 8 tablespoons ice water
Cherry Pie Filling
4 cups pitted tart red cherries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup white sugar
1 /4 cup cornstarch
*Note you can substitute already prepared canned pie filling

Directions

Cherry Pie Filling

Place cherries into a saucepan over medium heat, and cover the pan; heat cherries until they release their juice and come to a simmer, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir often.

In a bowl, whisk the sugar with cornstarch until smooth; pour the mixture into the hot cherries and juice, and thoroughly combine. Return to low heat, bring to a simmer, and cook until the filling has thickened, about 2 minutes; remove from heat, let cool, and use as pie filling.

Pie Crust

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, salt and sugar to a medium bowl. Stir 2 to 3 times until combined.

Scatter butter cubes over flour and mix briefly with a fork to coat the butter with flour.

Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender, working mixture until the flour has a coarse, mealy texture similar to fresh bread crumbs. About 1 – 2 minutes.

Add remaining 1 cup of flour. Work the butter and flour with the pastry blender until flour is evenly distributed. About a minute, until the dough has a crumbly texture.

Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of ice water over mixture. Using a rubber spatula, press the dough into itself. The crumbs should begin to form larger clusters. Pinch the dough and if it holds together, it’s ready. If the dough falls apart, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of extra water and continue to press until dough comes together.

Remove dough from bowl and place in a mound on a clean surface. Work the dough just enough to form a ball.

Cut ball in half then form each half into discs. Wrap each disc with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour before rolling out.

Remove one of the dough discs from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes.

Lightly flour work surface, top of dough and rolling pin.

Use a rolling pin to roll out dough to a 12-inch circle (about 1/8-inch thick). Lightly flour the surface you are rolling on so that the pie crust does not stick to the surface.

Check for size by inverting pie dish over dough round. Roll out until you have a 1-inch edge around the pie dish.

To transfer dough to dish, starting at one end, roll dough around rolling pin then unroll over dish.

Gently press dough down into dish so that it lines the bottom and sides of the dish. Don’t pull or stretch the dough as it may break. Use a knife to trim dough to within 1/2-inch of the edge of the dish.

Fold edge of dough underneath itself so that it creates a thicker, 1/4-inch border that rests on the lip of the dish. Refrigerate dough at least 20 minutes or freeze for 5 minutes before baking.

Roll out second dough disc fill the pie with prepared cherry filling, then top with second dough round. Trim the edges then crimp and poke a few holes with fork in the top.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool and set before cutting. Serve with ice cream.