Recipe of the Week..."Real Deal" Cherry Pie

This week's recipe of the week is for a scrumptious cherry pie...with REAL cherries, not cherry pie filling! YUMMY!! I'm also including a great pie crust recipe...but you can "cheat" and purchase a Pillsbury pie crust if you'd like.  I actually like to use Jiffy pie crust mix for my pie crusts...it makes delicious pie crusts, it's simple and quick to use, and it's inexpensive too!

Pie Crust Ingredients:

• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons of ice water

Cherry Filling Instructions:

• 1 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 (16 oz.) cans of pitted, red tart cherries, drained (or 6 cups frozen, unsweetened, pitted red tart cherries can be used instead)
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 Tablespoons butter

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut shortening into the flour with a pastry cutter or fork until mixture resembles small peas. Add ice water, one tablespoon at a time, and mix in using a fork. (More or less water may be needed, depending on how dry the air is...just don't add much more than an extra teaspoon or you'll end up with a goopy mess!) Gather dough into a ball. Divide dough into two balls and flatten each into a 4-inch wide disk. Roll dough disk on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch circle and place into an ungreased 9-inch regular or deep dish pie plate. Gently press dough into pie plate, leaving the portion that overhangs the edge of the pie plate in place. NOTE: Don't handle pie crust too much, or it becomes tough...a light, flaky crust is the goal!

For cherry pie filling, combine sugar and flour in a large mixing bowl. Stir in drained cherries and almond extract. Pour into the prepared pie crust and dot the top with the butter.

Roll out the remaining disk of dough and place over filling.  Or, after you roll out the dough, using a cookie cutter you can cut shapes out and layer over the filling to create a decorative crust. As shown in the photo above, I used a heart shaped cookie cutter and layered the hearts to form my top crust. Roll the edges of the bottom crust to form a decorative edge. Sprinkle the top crust with a teaspoon of sugar.

Bake on center rack in oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 375 degrees, cover edges with foil so they don't over brown, and bake pie for an additional 35 minutes or until top is a nice, golden brown.

Serve with vanilla ice cream and ENJOY!!