Homemade Cherry Pie
A homemade cherry pie filling in a buttery pie crust. This is a classic All-American cherry pie recipe!
Oh, Sweet Cherry Pie....how I love you.
This Sweet Cherry Pie is full of robust cherries with a perfectly sweetened filling....all in a buttery, flaky pie crust. It's also incredibly easy! You can impress others with this handcrafted cherry pie that is super simple to make.
The cherry filling is made from scratch -- using frozen cherries, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, tapioca pearls, cornstarch, butter, and fresh lemon juice. The star of the show is the pie crust and an all-butter one always does the trick -- All Butter Flaky Pie Crust.
The key to making this homemade cherry pie is to use a mixture of tapioca pearls and cornstarch to thicken the pie. This helps to keep it from becoming gummy yet still coming together. I also use frozen cherries in this pie since they are picked at their peak of ripeness.
If you are using a deep-dish pie pan,I suggest doubling the recipe (or at least 1 1/2 times the recipe) to be able to fill the pie pan.
Then I think of cherry pie the first thing that comes to mind is our 4th of July in Cambria California. We took a road trip to Big Sur (see guide HERE) and stopped in the charming coastal town called Cambria to be a part of their 4th of July festivities. I was so excited when I heard they were doing a pie eating contest for kids and thought my kids would kill it since they had a lot of practice eating pies!
It wasn't until the pies came out that we realized they may be in trouble. They were HUGE and I wondered how this was going to go down. My boys were confident they were going to be the winners and I had the camera ready to capture it all.
It was hilarious to watch them love the pie in the beginning, savoring every single bite. It was about halfway through that their expressions changed from joy to disgust. They struggled to finish and barely missed the victory. When the contest was over they looked at me as if they were going to lose their cookies. My son, Mason, declared that he would never ever eat a piece of pie again in his life.
With this fresh on my mind, I wondered if they would stick to that declaration and never eat pie again. I made this Sweet Cherry Pie and crossed my fingers that it wouldn't ignite memories of the infamous 4th of July pie. I am happy to report that they devoured it!
Now let's get back to business! Let's talk about this Sweet Cherry Pie and how to make it even better. Sprinkle the crust with some sparkling sugar and once it's baked, top it with vanilla bean ice cream. Oh baby...it's good!
- All Butter Pie Crust Double Crust Recipe -- https://www.modernhoney.com/butter-flaky-pie-crust/
- Cherry Pie Filling:
- 3 Tablespoons Tapioca Pearls
- 3 Tablespoons Cornstarch
- 1 1/3 cup Water (divided)
- 1 1/3 cups Sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 5 cups Cherries (frozen)
- 1 teaspoon Fresh Lemon Juice
- 3 Tablespoons Butter
- Egg Wash 1 egg whisked with 2 Tablespoons milk or water for brushing on pie crust
- Sparkling Sugar optional for sprinkling on pie crust
- Roll out pie dough and use one pie crust to line at 9 inch pie pan. Chill the pie crust dough as you make the cherry pie filling.
To make the pie filling, blend the tapioca and cornstarch with 1/3 cup water in a bowl and set aside.
Stir together sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a saucepan. Add remaining 1 cup of water and lemon juice and bring to boil over medium-high heat.
Once it is boiling, gradually add the tapioca mixture while whisking constantly, and return to boil. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the frozen cherries and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the pan from heat and stir in butter.
- Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Pour the cherry filling into the dough-lined pan.
- To make lattice: Roll out the second pie crust and cut dough into large strips. Lay half of the strips over the filling parallel to each other. Fold every other strip in half, back on itself. Lay down another strip across the first set so that it crosses every other strip and then unfold the strips. Continue to make lattice pattern.
- Trim the excess dough and crimp the edges to seal. Brush it lightly with egg wash. Sprinkle with sparkling sugar (optional).
- Place the pie on a baking sheet and place in oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, covering the crust with pie shields or tin foil half way through baking to avoid it from browning too much.
- Let the pie rest for 30 minutes to set up before cutting into slices.
- Serve with vanilla bean ice cream
** If using a larger pie pan such as a deep-dish pie plate, I would suggest doubling the recipe (or at least by 1 1/2 times) to fill the pie plate.
Click the links below for more pie recipes:
Caramel Apple Pie
White Chocolate Macadamia Chocolate Ganache Pie
Double Chocolate Marble Pie
The BEST Pumpkin Pie
Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie
Sweet Cherry Pie
Traditional Perfect Pumpkin Pie
Caramel Banana Cream Pie
Who else LOVES cherry pie? Do you serve it every Thanksgiving? We are 10 days away!
Happy Baking! xo
Are the tapioca pearls supposed to dissolve? My pie was a bit runny and I thought it was perhaps because the pearls didn’t dissolve in the water - they held their shape all the way through baking. Thanks!