Cherry Pie

Happy Father’s Day!
My dad loves cherry pie and so does my husband, so cherry pie is our family’s Father’s Day treat. This year’s pie is in the oven. I’m not an accomplished pie cook, so I was pretty pleased — I managed to assemble a decent-looking pie without having to call my mother.
For the filling, I used my mom’s recipe (of course.) I think it’s safe to post the recipe now.
My mom is an old hand at pie-baking — she grew up on a farm, helped cook for the threshers, had six brothers, was in 4-H, the bit — and she detests flat, sickly-sweet pies. She likes thick pies with lots of fruit, and that’s what this will make. I have used this successfully in a 9 inch and a 9 1/2 inch pie plate. If you make it in an eight you might have a really tall pie, or else just have some filling left over.
A note on the cherries: I’ve been using two 28-oz jars of Morello cherries, from Trader Joe’s, which comes out to 3 1/2 pounds and fills up my 9 inch pie plate very nicely. If you can’t get to Trader Joe’s, three one-pound cans of cherries should work fine. The recipe calls for cherries packed in water; the cherries I use are packed in light syrup, so I drain the cherries into a big measuring cup and let the cup sit for a minute or two. The sugar tends to sink to the bottom, so when I pour off the juice it isn’t so sickly sweet. I also use a little less sugar.
3 to 3 1/2 pounds pitted tart red cherries (water pack) (not “cherry pie filling”)
1 cup sugar, divided
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
3-4 drops almond extract
Drain cherries, reserving 1 cup of the liquid. In a large saucepan, combine 3/4 cup of the sugar and the cornstarch. Stir in 1 cup of the reserved cherry liquid. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir two more minutes. Remove from heat.
Stir in the remaining sugar, butter or margarine, and almond extract. Stir in the cherries. Let cool slightly and then fill your pie. Bake on the bottom rack in a 375 degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes.
You may have some cherry liquid left over. You can freeze it and use it later for a cake filling (cook with a little cornstarch and sugar.) I experimented and poured mine into a popsicle mold.
UPDATE: Here’s a picture of the pie. Next time I’ll cut the lattice strips a little narrower. Maybe I’ll use one of those pie wheels to fancy up the edges.