This Sweet Cherry Pie is Jon’s favorite, and Jennifer makes it for his birthday every year.

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 pinches of salt
• 3 sticks butter, chilled and cut into cubes
• 8-12 Tbsp ice water

For the filling:

• 5 cups whole pitted cherries, dark sweet cherries or mixture of rainier, sliced in half
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon coarse sugar

Instructions

Make the crust:

• In the bowl of a food processor combine the flour, sugar and salt and pulse to combine.
• Add the chilled butter and pulse a few times until you have pea-sized pieces of butter.
• Add 6 Tbsp ice water and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Grab a small handful and squeeze to see if it holds together; add up to 6 Tbsp more, a little at a time, if it does not.
• Do your best not to over-process the dough.
• Form the dough into two disks, with one half slightly larger than the other. Wrap each airtight and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Dough can be made 1-2 days in advance; let rest at room temp a bit to soften before rolling out.

Prepare the filling:

• Preheat oven to 425F with rack on lower middle position. In a bowl, whisk together the ½ cup sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and both extracts until well combined and smooth; be sure cornstarch is fully dissolved. Gently stir in the cherries to coat well. Set aside.

Assemble and bake:

• Roll out the larger dough half to about 12 inches diameter. Press into a 9-inch glass pie pan. Roll out the smaller dough half similarly. Cut ten ¾-inch wide strips out of it and set aside.
• Use rubber spatula to scrape all filling mixture into the dough-lined pie pan, mounding it slightly at the center. Arrange cut dough strips over the filling to form lattice top. Trim excess edges as needed, but leave enough dough at edges to fold up and crimp/seal well.
• Use pastry brush to evenly brush top crust with egg white; sprinkle evenly with coarse sugar. Place pie on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes. Tent entire pie loosely with foil to prevent over-browning and drop temperature to 375F.
• Continue baking about 1 hour more, or until filling is bubbling and crust is golden brown. If needed, cover just the edges of crust and bake a bit longer for center to bubble up.
• Let pie cool completely at moderate room temp. Once it’s set, slice and serve.