Cherry Pie

This is more or less the Serious Eats Cherry Pie, but with my crust, my starch (available from Brazilian grocery stores here), and my tendency to spice.

Ingredients

• 1 9" double-crust pie shell (uncooked)
• 28 oz. fresh or frozen pitted cherries (1 ¾ lb), optionally sweet, optionally macerated
• 1 ½ oz (generous ⅓ c.) sour tapioca starch (polvilho azedo)
• 1 scant c. sugar
• scant 2 T. lemon juice
• ¾ tsp. kosher salt
• ¼ tsp almond extract (optional)
• ½ tsp cinnamon (optional)
• ¼ tsp nutmeg (optional)
• dash clove (optional)
• egg white (optional)
• sanding sugar (optional)

Directions

1. Defrost cherries.
2. Make and chill dough for crust.
3. Mix non-crust ingredients.
4. Roll out and fill bottom crust.
5. Roll out and top with top crust.
6. Chill 30 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 400°F.
8. Optionally top with egg white and sanding sugar.
9. Bake 1 hour. (The original recipe said to bake it on a cookie sheet, presumably in case of spills.)
10. Tent or otherwise shield the crust.
11. Bake 15 more minutes.
12. Cool about three hours.

Variants

The original recipe called for regular tapioca starch, with a warning about trusting labels on food from China.

You can use canned cherry pie filling (up to 2 cans). Skip all ingredients except spices and extract. Optionally increase extract up to ½ tsp. per can. Reduce cooking time to 45 minutes. (Source)

You can use jarred sour cherries (drained). Reserve ½ c. of the juice. Reduce sugar, don’t macerate. (Source)

You can use a combination of cherry formats, as long as you do it proportionally (with the appropriate sugar, cooking time, etc.).

You can make mini pies in a (regular) muffin tin, with or without a top crust. A 9" crust should be enough for one muffin tin, or two if you want to top the pie. Fill with about 1 T. of filling (or to taste). Bake 25–30 minutes at 350°F. The internet varies on the diameter cookie cutter or cup to use to cut out the crusts (when it provides one at all), and on whether to spray the muffin pan. You may need to adjust times for canned vs. fresh filling.