This Cardamom Cherry Pie is made with with fresh, juicy, plump cherries with it’s natural flavor amped up with a hit of cardamom, and it’s encased in a flaky, tender, all-butter crust.
Cherry picking season is no longer 🙁 But I came across a huge stash of dark, ripe, sweet cherries at my local grocery store, and I couldn’t help myself. I bought some…actually, I bought a lot. Like 6 pounds a lot.
Then I felt the pressure. How the heck were we going to eat all of these cherries before they get spoiled? The answer was obvious: pie.
I started to think about what pairs well with cherries. And referring to my extensive experience with fruit pies (which you can read all about in this post), I knew that a lot of ripe fruit does well with a spice that’s a little sharp and bold.
Then I remembered the last time I baked a blueberry pie, a friend asked if I’d put cardamom in it. I didn’t. I’d actually put allspice in that pie. But I stashed the idea in my head, and when planing this cherry pie, it was like a lightbulb went off, and I remembered the cardamom idea. That’s how this Cardamom Cherry Pie was born.
When making this Cardamom Cherry Pie I realized that I don’t often bake with cherries. At first I thought that was sort of weird. Why not cherries?
Then it hit me. Baking with cherries means pitting cherries. And pitting cherries is not fun. It’s sort of tedious and laborious. And baking as much as I do, I have a pretty high tolerance for tedium. But pitting cherries takes repetitive to a whole new level.
Since I didn’t have a cherry pitter (I mean I never bake with cherries, so no need for a pitter), I went on a search to find an easy way to pit these suckers. I watched youtube videos of people using chopsticks and paperclips to remove cherry pits. And I tried all of the ideas.
Nothing worked. Every idea was a fail.
So I turned to the best kitchen tool ever invented – my fingers. Yup. I pitted dozens and dozens of cherries with my bare hands. It wasn’t so bad. My hands looks horrific with that dark cherry juice on them (It looked like my hands were covered in blood). But thankfully it washed off without a trace 🙂
But it was all worth it for this Cardamom Cherry Pie. The dark, ripe, sweet juicy cherries were enhanced with the cardamom. And what can be better than fruit encased in an all-butter, flaky crust? It was cherry heaven.
I have a feeling I’m going to need to invest in a cherry pitter because this Cardamom Cherry Pie is getting a permanent spot in my pie arsenal.
- For the Pie Crust:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbs granulated sugar
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 20 tbs unsalted butter, cold, cut onto 1/2-inch pieces
- 6-8 tbs ice water
- For the Cherry Filling:
- 2 lbs cherries, pitted
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2tbs corn starch
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 ts ground cardamom
- juice of one lemon
- zest of one lemon
- To Assemble the Pie
- 1 large egg mixed with 1 tsp of water
- sanding sugar
- Place the flour in a medium sized bowl. Add the sugar and salt. Mix until just combined.
- Sprinkle the cold butter into the flour mixture. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, crumble the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembled coarse crumbs.
- Sprinkle 6 tbs of water on to the mixture. Using your hands, mix the liquid into the flour mixture. If the dough isn’t coming together, add another tablespoon of ice water. Mix again. Continue to add up to 2 additional tablespoons of ice water (one at a time) until the dough forms a ball.
- Divide the dough into two pieces.
- Flatten each piece into a 4-inch disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 2 days.
- Place an oven rack in the lowest position. Cover a baking sheet in foil, and place on the lowest rack.
- Preheat the oven (with the prepared pan in the oven) to 500 degrees F.
- While the oven preheats, mix all of the cherry filling ingredients in a large bowl.
- Remove one disk of dough form the refrigerator. If the dough is too stiff to roll out, allow it to sit at room temperature for about 10 min.
- Sprinkle some flour on your work surface.
- Roll out the dough to a 12-inch circle.
- Place the dough circle in the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate.
- Place the pie plate in the refrigerator while working on the top crust.
- Roll out the second disk of dough. Cut into strips or shapes depending on the design of your top crust.
- Place the cherry filling in the pastry-lined pie plate.
- Place the top crust on the pie.
- Trim off the excess crust and crimp sides of the pie to seal.
- Brush the pie with egg mixture.
- Sprinkle with sanding sugar.
- Place the pie on the pre-heated baking sheet in the oven.
- Turn the oven temperature down to 425 degrees F.
- Bake until the crust is light golden brown, about 25 min.
- Lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees F and continue to cook for about 35 to 40 minutes until the crust is a deep golden brown.
- Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack for about 4 hours.
- Serve and enjoy!
Yum! That looks really good! Saving this for later!
Belle | One Awesome Momma
Sold! I love pie. Especially cherry pie. Pinning for late.r
Cherry pie is one of my favorites and I don’t eat it nearly enough – pinning this recipe to try ASAP!
Great recipe, looks much better than the one we’ve made in the past lol.
That looks amazing, especially by adding the cardamon spice for a new taste. Pinning for later!