Sour Cherry Pie

Sour cherries are hard to come by. They are ephemeral. I try to get them every year at the farmer's market. There's a lot of competition for them. One year a woman was standing at my usual sour cherry supplier's stand. She'd obviously been there a long time. The bell for the market hadn't been rung yet. When it did ring she bought every basket of sour cherries there were. I thought that was incredibly mean of her. I see her around once in a while and give her the evil eye.

We try to have at least one sour cherry pie a year. If we are lucky we have two.

The hardest part of making the pie is pitting the cherries.
I use only one crust and fold it over. This way we all believe
we are being virtuous calorie-wise.

Make 1 pie crust:
Take 1 cup of flour and a pinch of salt. Cut in 1/3 cup
of cold butter till it looks like very coarse grain.
Then add three tablespoons of ice water. Mix it up
to form a ball that sticks together. Don't over handle or
it will be tough. Chill for at least one hour.

Filling:
Pit four cups of sour cherries.
Add about 1 cup or more if you like
it sweeter of sugar. Mix in 1/4 cup of
flour. Let sit for 15 minutes.

Roll out the pie dough very thin.
Line an 8 inch pie dish with the dough.
Add the filling and cover with overlapping
dough. Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven
for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat and bake for
another 40 minutes.