My friend Carol was kind enough to bring me some delicious sour cherries from Door County; it seems impossible to find them around here so it was quite a treat to have a real cherry pie.
Double Pie Crust (store bought or homemade)
For the filling:
1 cup sugar
1 T lemon zest
3 T cornstarch
3 lb pitted sour cherries (I love this cherry pitter)
1 egg beaten with 1 t water for egg wash
Roll out the dough to fit the pie pan and let that rest in the fridge for about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 425º. Mix the filling ingredients and load into the pie pan. Roll out the other disc of dough and either do a lattice top or a regular top with a couple of cutouts to vent steam. Brush with the egg wash—you can put coarse sugar over the top if you like. Chill the assembled pie for about 30 minutes to relax the gluten. Place the pie on a foil or parchment lined rimmed baking sheet (it will overflow) and bake on the lowest rack (preferably on a preheated pizza stone) for 30 minutes; cover the edges with a pie guard (or foil ring if you live in the middle ages). Lower the oven to 350º and bake for another 50-60 minutes until filling is bubbling. If the top crust is getting too brown, you can tent it loosely with foil. Let cool at least 4 hours before cutting into the pie… it is best eaten the same day.
