Fresh Cherry, Blueberry Pie

Tonight I learned some lessons:

#1: Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts.

I think I'm pretty good at achieving the right taste in my own cooking.  And if you can't figure out what's in that sauce you had, I can probably do it.  But for the life of me, I don't know why I can't get a pie to look right.

Tonight (not today -- hence the dearth of pictures), I baked a cherry, blueberry "Old Glory" type pie.  It's summer and the cherries are fresh (more on those buggers in a minute), but mostly I just wanted to improve my pie-topping skills.  My last crust was a little disappointing -- aesthetically at least -- and recently I've been dreaming of competing with the likes of the tight lattices, the punny, and the elegant.  I say "dream"  because I'm clearly not there yet.

Tonight I decided to try out a cookie-cutter top; I found a star in the kitchen and decided to go with that. It still looked convincing once I had the pie together and some of the cut-outs on that surface.  I was a little worried about that the uneven surface that comes with fresh fruit, but I didn't realize that my little 5-pointed cut-outs would turn into writhing, starfish-like things once I tossed the pie in the oven.  Oh well. Starfish it is.  Delicious, cherry-topped, egg-washed, floury starfish.  Another day -- Another pie crust.

#2: Buy the damn cherry pitter.

In practice, I consider myself a conservative in the kitchen.  I don't like the Slap-Chop choppers; I prefer to do it by hand.  I don't like the new KitchenAid; I have the old Oster.  So I started tonight's adventure by googling around about how to pit a cherry -- by hand and without a pitter.  The furthest I got though was people telling me to hammer a nail through a board and impale the cherries on it, or better yet to fish-hook the pit out with an S-shaped paperclip.  None of those ideas turned me on though, so I got out my knife.

But after an hour of hacking at these cherries with a sharp paring knife, I give in.  I'm covered in cherry juice and at least 1/4 of all my cherries are in the trash on the pits.  Next time I'm near a kitchen shop, I'm buying a cherry pitter.  

After looking around, I discovered that they range in price and level of complicated like any kitchen utensil.  You can have one that pits a whole bag of cherries, or one that catches the pits.  I don't even want a complicated one though.  I just want one like this or this.

I've been so distracted by the details of cherry-pitting and starfish-lamenting that I've entirely neglected the wonderful pie recipe.  As always, it's simple and it's delicious.  I think this one manages the tart and sweet balance significantly better than the last (blueberry) pie.  It's a great summer pick.  The next time I make this pie though, I'll replace my sweet sea creatures with a full-coverage top crust and sugar in the raw.

Ingredients

3 cups fresh sour cherries, pitted (include juice produced during pitting) (or 4 cups frozen unsweetened)

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca or cornstarch (I used cornstarch)

Pastry dough for crusts (any one will do)

To make pie

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line heavy baking sheet with foil and set on middle rack of oven. In large bowl, combine cherries, sugar, and tapioca or cornstarch; mix well and let stand while preparing crust.  Pour filling into crust. Top with pieces of butter. Brush rim of bottom crust lightly with egg wash (1 beaten egg).

Apply to crust. Brush with milk (or soymilk) and sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar.  Place pie on baking sheet in oven. Bake 20 minutes. Cover crust edges with foil collar to prevent overbrowning. Continue to bake until filling bubbles and crust is golden brown, about 30 minutes longer. Transfer pie to rack and cool at least 1 hour.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Adapted from Epicurious.