Cherry pie

My 2 thanksgiving pies came from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book. It is a book I checked out of the library, tried a few recipes from, and liked so I bought it. It uses different whole grains. I chose my pies because they used barley - I really wanted to try a barley pie crust and the other one used oats. Both turned out pretty well. I have had trouble in the past with pie crust, but these 2 were both good. They also both rolled out nicely.
Here is the recipe for the cherry pie. It used oat flour. I weighted out the amount I needed in oat groats and ground that in my mill rather than grinding the oats in a food processor.



Crust Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (2 1/4 oz.) rolled oats
• 3/4 cup (3 1/8 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon buttermilk powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon white or cider vinegar
• 4 to 6 Tablespoons ice water -I only used 3 and it was too much.

Filling Ingredients

• 5 to 6 cups pitted sour cherries -I only had black cherries mine were frozen
  
• 3/4 cups sugar (I should have reduced this with the sweeter cherries)
  
• 1/4 quick cooking tapioca
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Topping Ingredients

• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I didn't want to regrind finer flour, and I didn't feel like making the topping whole wheat, so I used 1/4 cup wheat and 1/2 cups unbleached AP flour.
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes

Toss the frozen cherries with the sugar in a large bowl. Allow to thaw at room temperature; this takes several hours, so start early. Stir occasionally.

Crust: Grind the oats in a food processor for about 30 seconds. In a medium bowl whisk the oats, flour, buttermilk powder, baking powder, and salt. Add the almond extract. Cut the butter into small cubes and work into the dry ingredients. I like to use my fingers for this. Sprinkle in the vinegar -ONLY a TEASPOON (I mistakenly put in a Tablespoon to the first batch and had to throw it away.) Then add the water a tablespoon at a time, continuing to mix until the dough is cohesive. (I suggest actually doing it a Tablespoon at a time. I added 3 Tablespoons thinking if I stayed under the recommended amount I'd be fine. It was way too watery and I had to add extra flour.)
Shape the dough into a disk. Roll on its edge along a floured work surface to smooth the edges out. Pat the disk till it's about 1 inch thick, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
About 30 min before you're ready to make the pie, take the dough out of the fridge. Allow it to warm a bit and become flexible, 15 to 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425

Flour your work surface and roll the dough into a 12 inch circle. (I have a nifty little tupperware rolling sheet that has circle sizes printed on it - so nice. Transfer the dough to a 9 inch pie pan that's at least 1 1/4 inches deep. Trim and crimp the edges. place the crust in the frige to chill while preparing the filling.

Cherries: By the time they thaw, there should be between 1/2 and 2/3 cup juice in the bottom of the bowl. Do not drain. Add water if necessary to total between 1/2 and 2/3 cup.
Combine the tapioca and the cinnamon. Sir into cherries until everything is evenly combined. Stir in the almond extract and salt. Reserve the butter. Set the filling aside for 20 minutes giving the tapioca time to start working.

While waiting, prepare the topping by stirring together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Add almond extract. Work the cubed butter into the dry ingredients until crumbly.

Spoon the filling into the piecrust, and dot with the reserved 2 Tablespoons butter. Spread the topping over the filling.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes -until crust and topping are golden brown and fruit is bubbling. Add a crust shield (buying one of these. foil is so annoying) or pieces of foil around edges of the crust after 20 minutes if it appears to be browning too quickly. Remove pie from oven and cool for at least 1 hour before slicing so the filling can set up.

This was delicious. It was a little on the sweet side becasue I didn't use sour cherries, but it was still plenty tasty. You just had to eat a smaller slice. The crust turned out great.