ch-ch-cherry pie

Or rather "ch-ch-cherry soup" as Ben likes to say. After losing any fruit our Evans sour cherry tree had set to plum curculio two years running, I resolved last year to treat the tree systematically with insecticide in the spring rather than just hoping that nature would sort things out in my favour. As a result, we were able to harvest about 10 pints of cherries (a little more than half a peck, as in "a peck of pickled peppers") from our tree during this weekend's visit from the Fabulous Nerissa. Marie-Lou, Ness, Ben and I pitted those babies in record time and I set out to make the sour cherry pie filling described in Steingarten's piece "Pies From Paradise" in The Man Who Ate Everything.

Both Steingarten and the editors of Cook's Illustrated recommend tapioca for thickening cherry pie. The fruit flavour is reported to be "brighter" and the filling clearer. Corn starch, they say, produces a muddier taste. Steingarten instructs us to blend instant tapioca into a powder before using it, but no matter how long I let it whir around in there it wouldn't get much smaller than large grains of sand. I used it in that form and since the tapioca only dissolves partially when cooked, there were a multitude of little jelly specks in my filling, which was nonetheless absolutely delicious. I let it cool on the counter and then for several hours in the 'fridge before making my pies, as recommended. When the filling remained quite runny even when well chilled, I should have been more concerned than I was. I figured it might thicken more when I baked the pie.

It didn't. Two pies were made. We cut into the first only an hour after taking it from the oven, which I knew was going to be a mistake but it was too compelling. It was still very warm and the filling was like soup (sound familiar). The crust was also underbaked, a consequence of the cold filling throwing off my usual timing. The second pie spent the night in the refridgerator and cut much more nicely the following day; the above picture is of this pie. So that was that for this year's cherries, but I have found a nearby source of good frozen pie cherries and will press on. I have to find tapioca flour and increase the amount and see if that helps. I'll also bake it until the pastry is well and truly brown on top next time. Stay tuned for further developments.