Making a Sour Cherry Pie

Sour cherries have such a short life at the market. We wanted to try them out in a pie. My daughter and I bought a couple of pints of sour cherries. They are so pretty, bright red, glossy. The taste though raw is just awful.

We pitted them all together and then the next night made the pie.

• Pastry for 2 crust pie
• 1 c sugar
• 1/2 c flour
• 1/8 t of salt
• 3 drops of almond extract
• 4 c of pitted sour cherries
• 2 T butter

Combine sugar, flour and salt. Ad almond extract to cherries and toss with sugar flour mixture. Turn into pie crust. Adjust lattice tops; flute edges. Bake at 425 for 40 minutes.

This pie was divine. Likely the best pie I have ever eaten.

Gooseberry Pies

During the last months there has been a real dearth of pies in our house. I have been working trying to start a school, so pie making and a lot of other things have suffered. I was able though to take a few hours and make some pies with my daughter. We had bought gooseberries at the market, and I had never made a gooseberry pie.

We had yellow and red, so my daughter and I made three little pies: one yellow, one red and one mixed.

Here is the basic recipe:

• 3 c. gooseberries
• 1 1/2 c of sugar
• 3 T quick-cooking tapioca
• 1/8 t salt
• 2 T butter
• double crust for 9 in pie
  

Crush gooseberries and add to sugar, tapioca and salt. Stir in remainder of berries. Let sit while making the crust. Make the crust. Put the gooseberries in the pie, cover with latice. Bake at 425 for 35-45 minutes.

We did one pie of all yellow, one of all red and then for the mixed group we added a streusel topping.

They were all good. The yellow was more tart, less sweet. The best was the mixed with the streusel topping. It was great to discover how to use this summer fruit.