Pie #1: Fresh Sweet Cherry Pie with Coconut-Almond Crunch Topping, with Basic Flaky Pie Pastry Crust

The first pie was supposed to be the All-Rhubarb Pie, but everyplace we checked rhubarb was out of stock with shipments coming the following week, and we wanted to make a pie tonight for date night. So, sixty dollars and twenty miles later (had to drive about 15 miles to a ‘wet’ county for cherry liqueur), we finally have all the ingredients for this pie. So, let my pie journey commence! It seems we may have picked one of the hardest pies to start with. In “Pie” by Ken Haedrich, he says it’s expensive, requires cherries to be pitted, splashing juices and a large time commitment. So far, that definitely rings true.

My first crust was a success. It was way easier than I thought it would be, even though I decided to do it by hand and not in the food processor. I don’t know why I was so nervous! “Me conquer flaky crust!” The edges weren’t pretty, but hey, it got the job done.

Now for the filling, uh, is “tbsp” teaspoon or tablespoon? Why don’t they just spell it out? I’ll just have to remember that the “b” is in tablespoon. Instead of 2 tsp of lemon juice I was measuring out 2 tbsp’s! Good thing I caught that one! That could have made a huge taste difference, thank goodness for double checking. Oh, by the way, pitting cherries SUCKS! We used a bent up paperclip and our hands are still hurting and stained deep dark cherry maroon. Cherry pitter purchased on Amazon… Check!

I put the pie crust with filling in the oven and started on the coconut-almond crunch topping. It was really easy in my new Cuisinart 14-cup food processor! Thank you, hubby! I will say it was difficult figuring out what he meant by “gravelly crumbs”.

Side note: Did you know that the shelf life of most fruit pies is about 2 days at room temperature? If you want to buy another day you are supposed to refrigerate it rather than leaving it out. So, yeah, um… in the past we have kept pies out for a week, at least…Oh well, now I know. It just means someone will have to eat it faster. Whoever the lucky person may be…

Hello Results: So I started the pie around 9pm and finished the pie at 11:35pm, man am I TIRED, but it is totally worth it! It looks great right out of the oven. We’ll let it cool for about 25 minutes, and take our first bite at midnight! With a small scoop of ice cream this pie makes one heck of a midnight snack! Yummo!

Pay attention to measurements! The pie crust only had one crack! Don’t wait till after 9pm to start making a pie from scratch! Feeling proud of my accomplishment, I can do this! First pie down, 299 to go!