Homemade Cherry Pie Filling

I love cherry pies.  Most of my life I have just used the cherry filling for pies that you get in a tin.  I always have had a couple of tins of that in the cupboard.  Its what I use for my Chocolate Cherry Squares, and its great spooned over cheesecake, and its great in pies, of course! 

I have been oggling this photo for cherry pie envelopes on Pinterest for a very long time, attributed to Liz Bushong.  You can see her tutorial for making them here. They are gorgeous and I have wanted to try this for quite a while!  Hers look so beautiful!

Hahaha, not sure if you would call this a pinterest fail or not!!  I have to laugh when I look at it in comparison to Liz's!   You just got to laugh at yourself dont you?  Yes, you do!  Its not healthy to take life too seriously!

 

I couldn't find any pie filling at the shops and I tried three.  So I decided to make my own, from scratch and it turned out really well!  I used two containers of frozen cherries that I picked up at the shops when I couldn't find any tinned filling . . . and I just winged it, and was very pleased with the results.

It turned out lovely and red, with no food colouring added and with all natural ingredients.  Just the cherries, some sugar and some cornflour, with a bit of butter and almond flavouring added at the end.

You don't need to be adding any water to the cherries at all . . .  once they thaw out while you are cooking this, they release plenty of moisture on their own. 

I actually made the filling the night before.  I packed it into a container and let it cool, then I covered it and put it into the refrigerator overnight so it was nice and cold when I went to make my pie envelopes. 

I cut my pastry squares using my fluted pastry roller cutter thingie so that the squares would have a pretty edge.  I also cut out little hearts to decorate the fronts, but I think I should have cut larger hearts as they got lost in the baking.   They may not be very purty . . . .  but they sure tasted good!  Especially with a dollop of Devon Clotted Cream spooned on top!

*Cherry Pie Filling*

Makes enough for one pie

Printable Recipe 

I love cherry pie, but the filling is often very hard to find over here in the UK.  You can only get it in certain shops. So I decided to make my own. 

700g of frozen pitted Morello Cherries (4 cups)

3 1/2 TBS cornflour (corn starch)

240g granulated sugar (1 1/4 cups)

1 TBS butter

1/2 tsp almond extract

Whisk the cornflour and sugar together in a saucepan.  Stir in the cherries and let sit for about half an hour or so.  By this time they will have started to thaw out.  Cook, stirring constantly over medium low heat until the cherries are all thawed and the juices have been released.  Increase the heat to medium, and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the  mixture thickens and bubbles.  Cook for a further two minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and almond extract.  Let sit until cooled.  Store, covered, in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.


Note - This can also be frozen.  Pack the cold filling into a freezer container, leaving one inch of headspace, cover tightly and freeze.  You can also make this using fresh pitted cherries.

 

This cherry pie filling was really simple to make and tasted a bazillion times better than the tinned stuff. I think I will make it from scratch from now on when I want to make a cherry pie . . .no preservatives and all natural ingredients, and way less sugar.  I like my pies a bit on the tart side, but if you like them sweeter you can use a bit more sugar if you like.  I wouldn't add much more however, because I think this amount is just right.  Of course a lot depends on the kind of cherries you use.  I used Morello which are a bit tarter than sweet cherries.  You can find my favourite pasty recipe here.  Bon Appetit!