I have always considered making a cherry pie difficult. Where do you even get the cherries if you don’t have your own cherry tree? Many of the cherries at the grocery store and farmers’ market are for eating, not pie-making. Do you have to use tart cherries, or can you use sweet cherries? I had lots of questions. After a little research, I found some sweet answers.
Elusive sour (tart) cherries are the first choice for pie making, it seems. They only have about a 3-week picking window in the summer, if the weather cooperates. And they are hard to find! But a great alternative to fresh cherries, meaning you can make cherry pie year-round, is the canned dark Morello cherry. Many people in the U.S. are confused by the dark color of the Morello cherry because they associate sour cherries with bright red. But don’t let the dark color fool you because Morello cherries are indeed a sour cherry. I found some canned in a jar at Trader Joe’s. But if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby or they don’t stock them, look for other canned sour cherries (in juice) such as the Montmorency.
Make your own crust or buy a refrigerated crust from the grocery store. If you are going to cut fancy pastry shapes, buy 4 crusts. Using small cookie cutters, cut out shapes to place on the pie for the top crust.
Have fun and look for objects in the kitchen that you can use to cut shapes. Make small balls by rolling the dough between your palms.
Make an aluminum fold ring to protect the outer crust from over-browning. Start by pressing a sheet of aluminum foil against the top of your empty pan to mold the shape of your pan. Then, cut the middle of the foil out and cut any excess aluminum foil off the sides to create a ring. Then make the pie and place your ring on it. Leave this ring on for the entire cooking time. Remember, the ring doesn’t have to be exact. It just needs to be big enough to protect the outer crust from excessive browning.
This recipe makes six mini pies (or 5 if you like a lot of cherries in each pie). You can also make one 9-inch pie.
Mini Cherry Pies
Equipment
- (6) 6 x 4.5-inch mini tins or a 9-inch pie pan
- a baking Sheet
- parchment paper
- pie crust weights
- mini cookie cutters to cut crust shapes
Ingredients
- 4 pie crusts for decorated mini pies (2 crusts for a 9-inch pie)
- (1) 24.7 ounce jar Morello Cherries in light syrup (or equivalent sour cherry such as Montmorency)
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch (or tapioca starch)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Mini Pies
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Pour the cherries and 1 cup of the cherry juice into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Stir well and let sit for 15-20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, grease the tins and place a crust in the bottom and up the sides of each pie tin. Add pie crust weights to the bottom of each crust to prevent bubbling during baking. Add parchment paper to a baking sheet, then set the pie tins on it to parbake.
- Parbake the crusts in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned. See the note below for an alternative to parbaking.
- If using cutout shapes to decorate the pie, cut those while the crust parbakes.
- Stir and then divide the cherries and cherry juice between the 6 pie tins. Add the crust cutouts to cover the top of the pies.
- Cover the edge of the pie crusts with aluminum foil rings. Leave the aluminum foil on for the entire baking time.
- Remove the hot baking sheet from the oven and place the parchment paper on it. Add the pies and bake at 400°F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the crust is brown.
9-inch Pie Option
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Pour the cherries and 3/4 cup of the cherry juice into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Stir well and let sit for 15-20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place a crust in the bottom of the pie pan. Add pie crust weights to the bottom of the crust to prevent bubbling during baking.
- Add parchment paper to a baking sheet, then set the pie crust on it to parbake.
- Parbake the crust in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned. See the note below for an alternative to parbaking.
- If using cutout shapes to decorate the pie, cut those while the crust parbakes.
- Stir and then pour all the cherries and juice into the crust. Add the crust cutouts to cover the top of the pie, or if using a single crust, place it over the top, cut 5 or 6 slits for venting steam, and flute the edges to seal the two crusts.
- Cover the edge of the pie crust with an aluminum foil ring.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
- Check the pie during the last 10 minutes of cooking. If the crust is brown under the aluminum foil ring, leave the ring in place. If the crust has not browned under the aluminum foil, remove it.