Grandma Bray’s Cherry Pie
It has been a hard few weeks for my family after my grandma passed away in mid April. She was a phenomenal lady and her loss has really hit all of us hard. Since then, I have been trying to figure out which of her many wonderful recipes to share this Family Friday. I finally settled on cherry pie because it is my dad’s absolute favorite dessert. It is a little sweet, a little tart and a whole lot of delicious. This cherry pie goes perfectly with some vanilla ice cream. Now usually I am all for buying the pie crust because honestly I am horrible at making her (or any) crust, but I knew if I was going to make her cherry pie, I just had to make it right.
Grandma Bray’s Cherry Pie
Ingredients
Pie Filling
- 1 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 4 cups tart cherries drained
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
Pie Crust
- 1¾ cup AP flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup oil i use vegetable or canola
- 3 tbsp cold water
Pie
- 2 tbsp cold butter cut into 8 squares
- coarse sugar for topping
Instructions
- preheat oven to 425°F
- in a medium sized bowl, mix together cherries, almond extract, sugar and flour and then set aside
- in another bowl, create pie dough by mixing flour and salt and then blending in oil with a fork
- sprinkle water over mixture and mix well
- press dough into ball with hands – if too dry add a little more oil
- divide dough ball into 2, with one being slightly larger than the other
- roll out the larger of the two balls between 2 sheets of wax paper (I have found that it works better to roll between a silicone mat and wax paper, with the wax paper over the top of the ball)
- coat pie pan in thin layer of oil or cooking spray and then carefully fit into the pie pan
- pour pie filling mixture into pie pan and dot with the butter squares
- now roll out the smaller of the two pie crusts between 2 sheets of wax paper (or between wax paper and a silicone mat) – for this step I have found that using fresh sheets of wax paper makes it easier
- place top pie crust on the top of the pie, sealing at the edges but pinching the top crust and the bottom crust together
- cut a few slits in the center of the top of the pie and then sprinkle top with coarse sugar
- put foil or a silicone pie crust shield around outer crust to prevent it from burning
- bake 35-45 minutes
