Longtime attentive readers of this column will recall that I often write about cherry pie at this time of the year, during the few weeks when Michigan cherries are perfectly ripe.
My reason is simple: Family history.
My great- great grandfather, Eugene Power, was one of the first to plant cherries in the Traverse City region, back in the late 19th century. They’re now one of Michigan’s mainstay crops, the signature crop of Grand Traverse County, and will be – as long as the cherry orchards don’t all get paved over.
Some years ago, my cousin, Tom Power, a Circuit Judge up there, visited the old family orchard near Elk Rapids. The people now living there were cordial and showed us a very, very old cherry tree. It didn’t take much to speculate that tree was around when my great- great grandfather was alive.
There’s a great picture of him in our family photo album, wearing a big Panama hat, looking proprietarily at lines and lines of his cherry trees. And my father, also named Eugene, told me his first job as a youngster was picking cherries for 10 cents a lug (that’s 25 pounds) out on the old family orchard.
In any event, a fine recipe for cherry pie that has come down in our family. It uses Montmorency cherries (bright red “sours” as distinguished from the dark red “sweets”) and has been a staple at our July Fourth dinners for years and years.
It’s that recipe that I’ve written about occasionally. And for years I thought it was the summit of cherry pie recipes. Now there’s a new version, one I saw in the New York Times, by Melissa Clark. It’s called “Twice-Baked Sour Cherry Pie.” Instead of putting the cherry filling in an unbaked pie shell, this version calls for baking the shell in advance and then putting the cherries in before a second trip through the oven.
My wife, Kathy, tried it last weekend. And it was very, very good. We’re likely to use it from time to time when we want some variation in celebrating the flavors of Michigan and the history of our family – tradition, you might say, with a few new flourishes.
Here’s the recipe:
One and 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, more for rolling out dough
3/8 teaspoon table salt
15 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1 cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons instant tapioca
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 pounds sour cherries (about 6 cups), washed and pitted
1 tablespoon kirsch (cherry brandy)
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Demerara sugar, for sprinkling
***
To make dough: in bowl of a food processor pulse together flour and salt just enough to combine. Add butter and pulse until chickpea-size pieces form. Add 3 to 6 tablespoons ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until mixture just comes together.
Separate dough into two parts, one using 2/3 dough, the other the rest. Wrap them in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour (and up to 3 days) before rolling out and baking.
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place larger dough disk on a lightly floured surface and roll into a 12-inch circle, about 3/8 inches thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate. Line the dough with foil and weigh it down with aluminum pie weights. Bake until crust is light golden brown, about 30 minutes.
To prepare filling, in the bowl of a food processor combine sugar, tapioca and cinnamon (use more tapioca for a thicker filling, less for looser.) Process until the tapioca is finely ground. Place cherries in a bowl, add sugar and tapioca mixture. Drizzle in kirsch and stir gently to combine.
When pie crust is ready, cool on a wire rack. When cool, scrape filling into the baked pie crust. Reduce oven temperature to 375.
Place the smaller disc of dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it to 3/8 inch thickness. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out circles of dough. Arrange circles on top of filling in a pattern of your choice.
Brush top crust pieces with cream and sprinkle generously with Demerara sugar. Bake until crust is dark golden brown and filling begins to bubble, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool for at least two hours to let the filling set before serving.
Yield: 8 servings.
The resulting pie is crunchier than the original version, especially the bottom crust, which is nice. Ours turned out to be quite tart; if you like a sweeter pie, add a couple more tablespoons sugar.
My father liked his cherry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I’m more of a purist. Either way – and either recipe – is a great way to celebrate what’s wonderful about Michigan.
Happy Fourth of July!
Editor’s Note: Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics and a former chairman of the Michigan chapter of the Nature Conservancy. He is also the founder and president of The Center for Michigan, a bipartisan centrist think-and-do tank which is sponsoring Michigan’s Defining Moment, a public engagement outreach campaign for citizens. The opinions expressed here are Power’s own and do not represent the official views of The Center. He welcomes your comments at ppower@thecenterformichigan.net
