Cherry-berry pie

With restrictions finally lifting in Toronto, I was excited to finally be able to host real live people again in my home. And what better way to mark the occasion than pie! I wanted to try a novel filling, and I realized I had never really worked with cherries before (unsurprisingly because they're so pricey). Summer now being in full swing, a pie that combined two types of summer berries and sweet cherries felt like an appropriate ode to the season.

Recipe

adapted from Food & Wine
1 cup plus 1 tsp sugar
¼ cup quick-cooking tapioca
pinch of salt
2 cups pitted sweet cherries
¾ lb raspberries (3 cups)
½ lb blueberries (1½ cups)
1 tsp all-purpose flour
pie dough (1.5 recipe)

Make pie dough and chill for at least an hour. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one disk of dough to a 12" round, ⅛" thick. Transfer to a 9.5" deep dish pie plate.

In a bowl, toss cherries, raspberries and blueberries gently with sugar, tapioca, and salt. Mix flour with 1 tsp of sugar. Sprinkle in the crust; tap out the excess. Spoon the filling into the crust.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Roll out remaining dough and cut into strips. Arrange strips into a lattice pattern, trimming any overhanging strips and press into the crust. Back in the lower third of the oven for 1 hour, or until the crust is richly browned and the filling starts to bubble. Let cool on a rack until warm before serving.

Musings

A few notes on preparation: I didn't have quick cooking tapioca, so I substituted 3 tbsp tapioca flour. I also cut down the sugar a bit to be about ¾ cup sugar.

While my lattice work wasn't my best, this pie turned out to be a real hit! Served à la mode, it was flavourful and sweet (but not overly so), with a nice complexity from the 3 different types of contributing fruits. In making it, I also learned a way to pit cherries if you don't have a cherry pitter: use a chopstick to essentially poke it out. It's definitely not a fool-proof method, but it works in a pinch.