Sour Cherry Slab Pie
...that may have a few navy beans in it accidentally.
I have been making this pie for years. It was originally a Martha Stewart recipe but now I use the Smitten Kitchen adaptation because I can’t find the Martha one. It’s a cookie sheet sized pie so it serves about 20 people. The problem is, it’s kind of hard to make a pie crust the size of a cookie sheet without overworking the dough or having it get too warm. Also having a crust that large means it’s easy for there to be a hole here or there, and then the filling leaks out and it’s just very messy looking. It still tastes great, but it is clear something went wrong.
This time I decided to blind bake (baking before filling) the crust. I froze it in the pan for about half an hour and then I threw some dried beans in as pie weights. If you don’t weight it, it will puff up and collapse, which would probably have been better than what happened which is the edges flopped over, and the beans were starting to cook into the crust. I pulled it out before they became a permanent part of the pie but that was just luck. I have no idea what I would have done if they were really baked in there. I do not wish to be known as someone who served people cherry pie with a dried bean crust.
So now it’s in the oven and all I can do is sit here and hope it doesn’t look crazy when it comes out. Usually, it has a full top crust but this time I decided to do something fancy. It eliminates the leakage issue so if the stars at least somewhat hold their shape, this might turn out prettier than it usually does.
Have a lovely holiday with your people!