Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Alpha Bakers -- Sour Cherry Pi

Adventures in pie this weekend. March 14 was Pi Day (3.14), always a fun day to celebrate. The Alpha Bakers were making Rose's Sour Cherry Pie, and since that is one of my favorite pies in the world, I was completely on board. I even knew exactly which Russian grocery to visit for my frozen cherries. Of course, it was all the way out on Kings Highway, and before I knew it I had just gotten lazy, and was scouring my local fancy bodegas for jarred cherries. Didn't find them, although I know about forty places where they can be found, so I changed things up and bought frozen sweet cherries and a plum or two to make Rose's Cherry Sweetie Pie. Despite uninspiring plums and a potato starch that thickened a bit too much, the pie was a more than reasonable stopgap for Pi Day. My co-workers, volunteers, and the kid who'd ventured out early for tutoring were pleased.
I had made two batches of crust--one of Rose's cream cheese crust and one of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds butter crust. To fill the second one, I used the bodega blueberries and a peach or two. Out of season fruit. Less than inspiring. Still, I had a bit of crust left, and so I finally caved, picked up a jar or two of sour cherries in syrup, and made two little Sour Cherry Pies, reducing the sugar to 50 grams. Those I ate all by myself. See that flakiness in the pie crust? Now I just want to keep on making pie forever. This always happens. One pie is just not enough.


5 comments:

Vicki said...

They look so good! You are right, one pie is just not enough. I love the last photo. Looks like something in a bakery. I once lived on a street called Kings Highway in Iowa. My favorite address ever.

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

Yummo. So which crust do you prefer?

Patricia @ ButterYum
http://www.butteryum.org/roses-alpha-bakers/2015/3/14/tbb-sour-cherry-pie-pi-day

faithy said...

We don't get to see photos of your 4+20 blackbirds pie? Would love to see it! I think my pie filling was drier than yours..so next time i should put more juices from the jar.

Unknown said...

Is that the butter crust in the last photo? It looks incredibly flaky.

Katya said...

Faithy, I forgot to get a picture of the blueberry/peach pie. It was also a pinking shears kind of lattice look. I did a cream/sugar glaze on it and it baked rather unevenly, so it was dark in some places and whitish in others.

PhyllisCaroline, the last picture was a combo of crust scraps, so I'm really not sure which crust flaked up so dramatically. I think it had to do with the size of the pan and crust/filling ratio too. It was a very small pan.

Which crust do I prefer? Rose's is easier to work with and holds a shape better, and is actually flakier, usually. The 4&20 crust gets points for being all butter (I am less likely to have cream cheese around) and I find it more tender, with something of a more 'homemade' feel.