Cherry Pie

I made this last night:

It's a cherry pie kind of a thing, but not really (obviously). I had some sour cherries left over from a project I'm working on for Barker Drinks, and I needed something to do with them.  So, I got really creative...and decided to make a pie. I know, I know, I'm a visionary. But this was a big step forward for me: my first pie crust, from scratch.

Pie crust has always been a bit of a block for me. It seems like such a simple thing: it's basically just flour and fat, with a little water. But everyone has a different technique, a different fat (butter? lard? shortening? combo?), a different tool, a different song they sing backwards while they're rolling it out, etc. All of that, coupled with that fact that people put sooooo much weight on the flakiness (or not) of the crust, and it all gets a little overwhelming. I've been meaning to give it a go for years now, but it was always just easier to buy a frozen one at the store, and put some extra love in with the filling to make up for it.

Well, last night I had no frozen crust. And the cherries were sitting there, basically taunting me. "We're safe! You can't make a pie crust, get real! We live another day! Live to sit in the fridge until we grow fuzzy and you throw us out!" And on and on, with the cherries. Sheesh. 

So I decided to go for it, what the hell. I looked up a basic recipe on the internet and got started. I used butter, because butter is delicious (and it's the only fat I had. Except bacon fat...which gets me thinking. Another time...). The recipe called for putting the butter in the freezer for a half hour so it's good and cold. I didn't do that. Didn't have time really, and I was tired. But...I had frozen butter, so I went with that. It probably took a lot longer to cut it in, but what do I know? I've never done it before.

I got it all mixed, and rolled it into a ball, and put it in the fridge for half an hour. Just following the recipe...every one is different, like I said. I pulled it out thirty minutes later, rolled it out kinda haphazardly, put it in the casserole thing, and added the cherries (which I had mixed with some sugar and cinnamon. No I don't know how much. Some.), and folded the dough over the top. No fancy two-crust pie for me. Into the oven, out of the oven, cool, eat.

You know what? It was good. And I did it. Not the best I have had--it would win no prizes. But it was flaky, and tasted like a homemade pie crust. The lesson: just do it already, Barker.