Tart cherry pie

For years, Laura has been talking about the sour cherries from the tree in her yard growing up, and the pie that her mom would make with them. But we'd never found sour cherries around here—until Yasai had some this week! They were labeled "tart" instead of "sour", and that was accurate (not too sour and not too sweet). So of course Laura called her mom and got the OG recipe. Pretty proud that the resulting pie lived up to Laura's memory! Also including Laura's classic pie crust recipe here, in an appropriate amount for a 9" double-crust pie.

filling:
4 c (or more) sour cherries, pitted (turns out metal straws work quite well as cherry pitters!)
2 T tapioca starch (presumably cornstarch or other thickeners would work too)
3/4 c sugar (up to 1.5 c for tarter cherries, down to 1/2 c for sweeter cherries)
1/2 t almond extract
1/2 t salt

pie crust:
2 c flour
1 t salt
scant 3/4 c shortening
4-5 T ice water + vodka


Preheat the oven to 425F. Pit the cherries and mix all the filling ingredients together, and set aside while you make the crust.

Prep for the crust: Mix the flour and salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, put some water, a glug or two of vodka, and a couple ice cubes. Prep the area where you're going to roll out the pie crust.

Now it's time to get your hands dirty! Cut the shortening into pieces and drop into the flour. Rub the shortening into the flour until it's flaky and crumbly. Add 4 T of the ice water/vodka, and gently mix in with your fingers to moisten; add another tablespoon if needed. Press the dough together to form a ball, and divide the dough in half to form two balls.

On your prepped surface, roll out the first ball of dough and transfer to the pie pan. Fill with the filling. Roll out the second ball of dough, cut into strips, and weave the strips into a lattice on top of the filling. Press the edges of the lattice into the lower crust, and form an even edge around the crust (I didn't have quite enough crust to form a nice crimp or anything).

Bake at 425F for 20 min. Cover the edge with foil, turn the heat down to 350F, and bake for another 20 min until nicely browned and bubbling. Let cool for a bit before eating with ice cream and/or whipped cream.