Cherry Berry Pie

I've said it before.  Pies are not my thing.  I DO love eating them, I'm just not good at making them.  Every once in awhile I think "I'm going to try again!".  I see some good looking recipe and I get motivated to suceed at making an awesome pie. This newfound motivation happens every year or so. Yesterday I saw this pie on the cover of Family Circle and the urge struck!!  This pie turned out to be...just ok.  I won't even blame the recipe because I'm sure the results are due to my lack of pie making skills.  It is certainly an edible pie and some might even think, quite good but it was very middle of the road to me.

For one, I think the filling had a bit too much thickener BUT I will say, that I chose to add a bit more thickener than the recipe called for because I've had pie disasters in the past where there was not enough thickener and it flowed like a river when I cut into it...and that's after the pie had cooled!  This pie sliced a little too neatly.  It wasn't quite "jelled" but it was a little too firm for my taste.  It should have oozed more when I sliced it. There was no oozing at all.

Also, the flavor was quite bland.  Now, that could have been the quality of fruit I was using.  I used frozen cherries and blackberries & raspberries from the supermarket.  Not tasteless fruit but not super concentrated flavor either.  I added vanilla and a bit of almond to the filling which the recipe did not call for and I think it helped a bit but still was lacking something.  Tartness, maybe?  Yeah, I think that's it.  Berries naturally can be a bit tart, even when sweetened but this filling lacked that.

The crust, well, I used a Marie Callanders frozen crust.  Yep.  I didn't make a homemade crust. I happen to like the Marie Callanders crust and it sure was easy to pull it out of the freezer, slop some filling in there and cover it with the already rolled out 2nd crust.

This pie recipe is slightly adapted from the cover of the Family Circle July 2011 edition.  It's the pie on the cover and theirs looks beautiful!  I doubled the filling recipe and made 2 pies.  One of mine had the lattice top and one did not. They are both pictured below! Of course I cheated with the lattice and didn't weave.  Just laid them down on top of one another. Lame, I know.

Cherry Berry Pie

Filling:

3/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1/3 cup quick cooking tapioca

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups cranberry juice blend

3 cups pitted fresh sweet cherries (or a 16 oz package frozen, thawed 1 hr)

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries (6 oz container)

1 egg yolk mixed with water

In medium saucepan, combine 3/4 cup of the sugar, the tapioca, cornstarch and salt.  Whisk to blend. Add juice and stir till smooth. Cook, stirring for 5 minutes until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in cherries and raspberries.

Put cooked filling into pastry lined pie plate.  Cover with another pastry crust.  Fold edges under and crimp together.  Brush the top with egg yolk/water mixture and then sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake pie at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake an additional 45 minutes. Cover pie edges if browning too quickly during baking.  Cool at least an hour before slicing.