Nobody was growing cherries in Anchorage in the early days, which might be one reason canned cherries, shipped in from Outside, felt precious and celebratory, especially in winter. My mother grew up eating cherry pie in Anchorage at Christmas time, specifically made from canned tart cherries, and I grew up with her making it for me. Canned cherries show up as ingredients in old Alaska cookbooks starting around World War II. The pie that tastes like childhood holidays to me is sweet-tart, firmly gelled and lightly boozy.
That vintage feel inspired this canned tart cherry pie, which I’ve flavored as my grandmother and mother did, using cherry kirsch or kirschwasser, an old-timey liquor of German origin. If you don’t mess with alcohol, a quarter teaspoon of almond extract will also be just fine. Or you can use both for a little more complex flavor. I also use one of my favorite crust recipes, which replaces the water with ice-cold vodka. The alcohol evaporates totally, leading to a loftier pastry. One last tip: be careful with the cherries. The goal is to fold them into the gel at the end and leave them mostly whole. They are very delicate. I change up my crust design every time, using a pizza cutter and ruler to cut the dough if I want to weave it into a lattice. If you want inspiration for that, let the internet be your guide.
Vintage tart cherry pie
Makes one 9-inch pie
For the crust:
1 cup (two sticks) salted cold butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
3 tablespoons sugar, divided.
3 to 4 tablespoons ice-cold vodka
For the filling:
3 14.5-ounce cans tart cherries in water
1 cup granulated sugar
Juice of one half a lemon, about 1.5 tablespoons
1 tablespoon cherry kirsch (you can also sub or add in 1/4 teaspoon almond extract)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons salted butter
One egg, beaten
Sugar for sprinkling over the top
Method:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Make the crusts one at the time. Using a food processor, process one stick of butter with one cup of flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar until it forms a meal. With the blade running, drizzle cold vodka in until it just begins to coalesce into a ball. Pull it out of the bowl of the food processor, press into a disc, wrap it in parchment and put it in the fridge. Repeat. If you refrigerate the pie dough for more than 15 or 20 minutes, you’ll need to let it soften up a little on the counter before you roll it.
Next, make the filling. Drain the cherries, reserving the liquid. Place 1/2 cup of that liquid in a separate, lidded jar. In a sauce pan, combine the remaining liquid, sugar, cinnamon and kirsch or extract over medium heat, bring it to a boil and stir until the sugar dissolves and it begins to simmer. Meanwhile, add the cornstarch to the jar of juice, cover and shake well. Pour the cornstarch slurry into the boiling mixture, turn down the heat and and whisk until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat, fold in the cherries and add lemon. Stir in the butter until it melts. Let it cool to room temperature while you roll out the pie dough. Warm filling will really mess with a lattice crust, in particular.
Ready a 9-inch pie pan. With a floured rolling pin, roll out one disc of dough several inches larger than the diameter of the pan and gently lift and press it in place. Fill it with the cherry filling. Roll the second disc to roughly the same size. If you choose to make a lattice top, I recommend searching for a video. I sort of like to freehand it, but for a tidier look, build the crust on parchment and lift it onto the pie. Pinch the edges all the way around and crimp them. Brush the pie with beaten egg. Place on a sheet pan to catch any extra filling and bake for 20 minutes, before turning 180 degrees, and, if it’s getting too brown, tenting it gently with foil. Bake for another 20 minutes, or until you can see the cherry filling bubbling around the edges. Allow to cool completely before cutting.