my first double crust cherry pie ever

my first double crust cherry pie ever
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

Pray for me.

I may have mentioned that I make mostly -- make that only -- fruit tarts. Never pies. Somewhere I got it into my head that pie crusts are impossibly difficult to make. Somehow I never found tart crusts difficult, but they're a little more sturdy than pie crusts, because they have to stand on their own.

I planned to take the old school route for this piecrust, which was my first, and after consulting with C on her renowned Crisco-crust I pulled out the Joy of Cooking to figure how to create a sweet enough filling from the perfectly ripe sour Michigan pie cherries that I picked up at the farmers' market yesterday.

And then I made of the mistake of checking Saveur to see what they had going on.

Their crust, based on one from The Pie and Pastry Bible which I've heard raves about elsewhere, calls for butter and cream cheese. And vinegar.

No Crisco.

This, as you can imagine, is suspect. Plus there's the issue of the tablespoon of whole cream that's called out as an ingredient but not incorporated anywhere else.

But I went for it, mostly because Saveur has never, not ever, let me down (outside of their website redesign which makes it impossible to find and share recipes but who knows: maybe that's their strategy?) (If it is it's a bad one).

After some three hours of crust making and cherry macerating the pie is now in the oven.

Very soon, we'll know.