Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Week 8-Presidents' Day Pie

Sorry for the late post this week.  I won't even lie- for the last couple of nights I was caught up watching the Academy Awards and the Fashion Police follow up.  Now you all know my guilty pleasures.

In the past week, there was a lot of celebration of presidents- Presidents' Day, Washington's birthday, Daniel Day-Lewis' Oscar for his portrayal of Lincoln.    And there was the marketing holiday known as National Cherry Pie Day.  Because the cherry growers want you to buy cherries out of season at $12.99 a pound.

In honor of all of these things, I chose to make a delicious cherry-bourbon pie that utilizes jarred cherries.  For those of you who don't know how my logic works, the cherry pie covers the Cherry Pie Day and George Washington's birthday (I mean every one knows the cherry tree story, right?)  The bourbon is a nod to Abraham Lincoln who was born and spent his childhood in Kentucky and married crazy old Mary Todd from Lexington (everyone thinks of Illinois as the Land of Lincoln, but not I.)  And bourbon, my friends is the drink of Kentucky. 

Plus, the recipe description told me it was like making an Old Fashioned in pie form.  And since my kids haven't stepped up to eat these pies, I figured I could make another liquor enhanced pie.

The end result- very yummy.  When my taste testers and I first tried the pie the day it was baked, it was definitely too orange-y.  The orange taste overwhelmed the cherries.  But after a day in the fridge, the orange taste mellowed a bit.  I probably would not add the orange zest the next time I make this since I think that might have put it over the edge.  The crumble on top was lovely- sweet and nutty.

 I used Trader Joe's jarred Morello cherries for this- and they are wonderful.  I probably will buy them again to make a topping for ice cream.  Just beware, I found a couple of rogue pits in my pie.  I promise I will pit my own cherries this summer and make a real fresh cherry pie- cherry pie is my absolute favorite so I knew I'd be making it a couple of times.

Cherry- Bourbon Pie
Adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine, August 2012
Link to Cherry Bourbon Pie recipe

By the way, I saved this hard copy from Bon Appetit magazine.  The whole article was about setting up a bring your own pie party- a pie social as they call it.  I definitely must consider doing this over the summer!

Crumble Topping
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Pie
1 pie crust
6 cups pitted sour cherries, drained (this equated to 3 24.7 ounce jars of cherries)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup bourbon
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest (as mentioned above, I probably would try the recipe with this left out next time)

Make the crumble- mix all the ingredients for the crumble except for the butter.  Rub the butter into the oat mixture with your fingertips.  The butter should stay chilled before baking so I put this back in the fridge while I made the pie crust and assembled the pie.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking tray with aluminum foil.  You'll put the pie on this in case it bubbles over. 

Combine the cherries and the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix until the cherries are completely covered.  Pour into the pie crust and then top with the chilled crumble.  Put the assembled pie on the pie sheet and bake about an hour and fifteen minutes.  The crumble should look golden brown and  the cherries should be bubbly and thick.  Let cool at least 2 hours.

This is not in the recipe, but I would recommend chilling the pie in the fridge prior to eating.  I thought it was a lot more delicious cold than at room temp.

And here is the final result:

BTW, I think it's funny that I bought the Argo cornstarch a few days before the Oscars. I must have known what was going to happen...



Pre-oven

Post oven


Tasty pie




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