This recipe is better than ever. My homemade cherry pie is perfectly sliceable with a thick almond-hinted cherry pie filling and a golden brown buttery flaky pie crust. As always, wait for the pie to cool completely before slicing, which is a non-negotiable that helps avoid a soupy pie filling.
I originally published this recipe in 2017 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more success tips, like quartering *some* of the cherries instead of halving and reducing some juices on the stovetop to guarantee the pie filling will set up perfectly.
No store-bought pie filling or pie crust because today we’re making cherry pie completely from scratch. Does making homemade pie intimidate you? I promise this dessert specialty is nothing to fear and that’s exactly why I’m sharing my recipe with you. Out of all pie flavors, cherry pie is where most bakers depend on canned filling, but I’m going to teach you how to make the most of fresh cherries and a delicious crust.
One reader, Shirlee, commented: “I’ve never tasted a cherry pie as delicious as this one. The crust is flaky, not soggy, and so delectable. The dough is easy to work with. The filling was incredible. It’s just the right consistency—not runny. The almond extract adds amazing flavor. Pitting the cherries takes a little bit of time, but once that’s done the recipe moves along quickly. Thanks, Sally, for providing such wonderful baking tips and instructions. ★★★★★“
Cherry Pie Details
- Flavor: While the cherry flavor is front and center in this pie, you’ll enjoy the notes of vanilla and almond as well. Vanilla and almond extracts add richness and depth and a touch of lemon juice keeps the overall flavor fresh and bright. (Without it, the filling can taste a little flat.) A scoop of vanilla ice cream and a dollop of homemade whipped cream pair perfectly on top of a slice.
- Texture: If you follow the recipe closely, this cherry pie filling is buttery, jammy, sturdy, and sliceable. You can use your favorite pie crust recipe, but I encourage you to try mine linked below. We use a mix of shortening and butter because they work together to make the BEST crust. Butter adds flavor and flakiness, while shortening’s high melting point keeps the crust tender and workable. It’s my go-to crust for apple pie and pumpkin pie, too. If you don’t want to use shortening, try this all butter pie crust recipe instead.
- Ease: It goes without saying that homemade pie is a labor of love, especially if you’re a beginner. Consider this recipe an activity—hopefully fun and definitely satisfying—and set aside several hours from start to finish. My time-saving tip is to prep the pie dough ahead of time because it needs to chill for at least 2 hours before you can roll it out. Plan accordingly if you want to include this cherry beauty in your lineup of Memorial Day recipes.
Best Cherries to Use for Cherry Pie
If you’re making cherry pie from scratch, it’s helpful to know which cherry variety works best. I usually choose a mix of rainier cherries and dark sweet cherries, but opted for all dark sweet cherries in the pictured pie. You can use all Rainier or all dark sweet. If using sour cherries, add a little more sugar as referenced in the recipe note below.
You can also use frozen halved or quartered cherries. Follow the recipe as written below and don’t skip the reducing step on the stove.
Pitting Cherries
Pitting fresh cherries is always a tedious and messy task, so if you want to save time and prep work, pick up a cherry pitter. If you’re anything like me, you don’t like stuffing your kitchen drawers with endless gizmos and gadgets, but a cherry pitter is most definitely an exception. I don’t bake with cherries often, but when I do, I’m VERY thankful for this tool.
- It’s also a timesaver if you’re baking bourbon cherry crisp, cherry cobbler, and/or cherry buckle!
Reducing the Cherry Juices on the Stove Takes Less Than 10 Minutes
After you combine the filling ingredients together, set it aside and roll out the pie dough for your pie dish. During this time, your filling is already working as the sugar pulls juices from the cherries. Normally I discard all this juice, but it’s where a lot of the cornstarch ends up and that’s what helps thicken the filling in the oven. I use this same method in my blueberry peach pie, and it helps the filling set nicely.
Instead, use a slotted spoon to transfer the fruit into your crust, then pour the leftover juice into a small saucepan. You’ll only have a few Tablespoons, but this juice is pure GOLD as it holds our thickening agent and a lot of flavor. Reduce on the stove over low heat for about 3-4 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes, then pour over the cherries and toss gently (in your pie dough!) to combine.
Here’s the filling in the mixing bowl. You can see all the juices at the bottom. Spoon cherries into the pie dough:
Reduce the excess juice on the stove until it has thickened:
Let it cool for a few minutes, then toss into the cherries. The sugars in the reduced juice will harden and you’ll notice this “juice” become almost caramelized and stringy once it hits those cold cherries. This is NORMAL and totally fine! The “juice” will melt down in the oven, but keep the filling thick.
Don’t Forget the Extras
- Butter: Dot the pie filling with small cubes of butter before applying the top crust. Why? It adds buttery richness and actually helps prevent the formation of bubbles on the filling’s surface. We do the same thing when we make peach pie.
- Egg wash: An egg wash is egg mixed with milk (or water) and you use it pretty much whenever you’re baking pie dough or baking other shaped dough such as stromboli, vanilla biscotti, homemade bagels, choux pastry, croissants, etc. Egg wash promises a crispier crust and helps develop that signature golden sheen. Without it, dough is dull and lackluster.
- Coarse sugar: This is optional, but I love finishing sweet pies with coarse sugar because it adds a little crunch and sparkle. I usually use Sugar in the Raw or these coarse sugar sprinkles, both of which can be found in the baking aisle of major grocery stores.
Lattice Pie Crust
Note that our pie crust recipe yields enough dough for a double crust pie—one for the bottom and one for the top. If you’re new to working with pie dough or need a little troubleshooting, our pie crust tutorial walks you through each step in thorough detail and includes a video, step-by-step photos, and all my tips and tricks for pie crust perfection.
I made a simple lattice pie crust design with thick and thin strips, but decorate the pie however you’d like. Once your lattice is assembled, you’ll want to crimp or flute the pie crust to finish it off. I fluted the pie crust in these photos.
You could even skip the top crust and use the crumble topping from our blueberry crumble pie. Or if you wish to skip the pie dough completely, try these cherry pie bars instead.
Start the Pie at a High Oven Temperature
Why do some pie recipes call for an initially hot oven temperature that you eventually lower? Baking this pie at 400°F (204°C) for 20 minutes helps the pie dough set and activates the cornstarch in the filling (as does heating it on the stove). After that, reduce oven temperature down to 375°F (190°C) to continue baking the pie. We use this same trick when we make blueberry pie and triple berry pie.
Do I Need to Par-Bake The Crust for This Cherry Pie?
Before you begin, let me answer a FAQ we receive on this recipe. You do not need to par-bake or blind bake this bottom pie crust. Reducing the filling’s juice on the stove keeps excess liquid off the bottom pie dough, plus we bake the pie for long enough that the bottom crust sufficiently cooks through. It’s helpful to use a glass pie dish so you can see when the sides/bottom of the pie crust has browned.
See Your Homemade Cherry Pies!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂 For more pie inspiration, check out our collection of delicious summer pie recipes!
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Homemade Cherry Pie Recipe
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 7 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: 8-10 servings
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This homemade cherry pie is perfectly sliceable with a thick almond-hinted cherry pie filling and a golden brown buttery flaky pie crust. The ingredients are exactly the same as when I originally published the recipe in 2017, but quartering *some* of the cherries instead of just halving and reducing some juices on the stovetop both guarantee that the pie filling will set up perfectly.
Ingredients
- Homemade Pie Crust or All Butter Pie Crust (both recipes make 2 crusts, 1 for bottom and 1 for top)
- 4 and 1/2 cups halved & quartered pitted fresh cherries (see note)
- 2/3 cup (135g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (28g) cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 Tablespoon (14g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- egg wash: 1 large egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk
- optional: coarse sugar for sprinkling on crust
Instructions
- The crust: Prepare either pie crust recipe through step 5. The pie dough needs to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before using.
- Make the filling: In a large bowl, stir the cherries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, vanilla, and almond extract together until thoroughly combined. Cover the filling and place in the refrigerator as you roll out the pie dough (or for up to 24 hours).
- Roll out the chilled pie dough: On a floured work surface, roll out one of the discs of chilled dough (keep the other one in the refrigerator). Turn the dough about a quarter turn after every few rolls until you have a circle 12 inches in diameter. Carefully place the dough into a 9-inch pie dish. Tuck it in with your fingers, making sure it is smooth. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cherries into the crust. Reserve the juice in the bowl for the next step. Refrigerate pie, uncovered, as you reduce the juice in the next step.
- Pour the leftover juice into a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring, until juice has slightly reduced and thickened, about 3–4 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes, then pour over cherries in filling. Do your best to gently toss together—doesn’t have to be perfect. The reduction will harden and thicken as a result of mixing with the cold cherries—this is normal. Dot the pieces of cold butter on top of the filling. Place the pie in the refrigerator while you roll out the top crust.
- Arrange the lattice: Remove the other disc of pie dough from the refrigerator. Roll the dough into a circle 12 inches in diameter. Using a pastry wheel, sharp knife, or pizza cutter, cut the dough into strips—for the pictured pie, I cut four strips 2 inches wide and four strips 1 inch wide. Carefully thread the strips over and under one another, pulling back strips as necessary to weave. See this post on How to Lattice Pie Crust for help with this step. Press the edges of the strips into the bottom pie crust edges to seal. Use kitchen shears or a small paring knife to trim off excess dough. Flute or crimp the pie crust edges.
- Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the top and edges of the pie crust with egg wash. Sprinkle the top with coarse sugar, if using. Place the pie in the refrigerator for 20–30 minutes while your oven preheats.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Place the pie onto a large baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Keeping the pie in the oven, reduce the temperature to 375°F (190°C) and bake for an additional 30–40 minutes or until the top crust is golden brown and the filling juices have been bubbling up around the edges or through the lattice/vents for at least 5 minutes. *After the first 20 minutes of bake time, I recommend placing a pie crust shield on the crust’s edges to prevent it from over-browning too quickly.*
- Remove pie from the oven, place on a cooling rack, and cool for at least 3–4 hours before slicing and serving. Filling will be too juicy if the pie is still warm when you slice it.
- Cover leftovers tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead / Freezing Instructions: There are a couple ways to make this pie ahead of time. Prepare the pie in full 1 day in advance—after pie cools, cover tightly and keep at room temperature. The pie crust dough can also be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Baked pie also freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving. Prepared filling (with juices) can also be frozen up to 3 months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator before spooning into dough and reducing the juice.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Cherry Pitter | Glass Mixing Bowl | Rolling Pin | 9-inch Pie Dish | Pastry Wheel or Pizza Cutter | Pastry Brush | Pie Crust Shield | Cooling Rack
- Cherries: You need about 1.5 lbs of cherries for this recipe. Cut half of the cherries into halves and the remaining half of cherries into quarters. Using a mix of halved and quartered cherries helps keep the baked filling in tact. You can use any variety of cherries. I use all dark sweet cherries in the pictured pie, but also enjoy using a 50/50 combination of dark sweet and Rainier cherries. Feel free to use all Rainier cherries if desired. If using sour cherries, increase sugar to 3/4 or 1 cup depending how sweet you like your pie. You can also use frozen cherries. Halve/quarter them while they’re frozen, then toss with other filling ingredients as instructed. Reduce the juices as instructed as well. Bake time may be a few minutes longer.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I love your website- your recipes never fail me! I made this for Thanksgiving and even though you don’t recommend frozen cherries they were all we could find. I completely defrosted them and drained them well. Then I added the cherries and sugar to a sauce pan and heated until bubbly – about 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile I combined the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice in a small bowl. After the cherries/sugar were bubbling I added the cornstarch/lemon juice mixture and stirred continuously until thickened – about 2 minutes. I removed the cherry mixture from the heat & added the vanilla & almond extracts. I left it to cool, made the pie crust dough & refrigerated both the crust & pan of filling overnight. The next day I assembled & baked – the pie was a Thanksgiving hit! Everyone loved it… the best homemade cherry pie we’ve ever had! Thank you for your wonderful recipes!
Going to make this as well as other pie recipes from your site for Thanksgiving! can’t wait!!!
I would love to make this pie, but the only cherries I have at the moment are dark morello cherries in a jar. Do you know if these are okay to use? Do I need to drain them out of the syrup/juice?
Hi Lucy, you could use those but they’re softer than fresh cherries. Drain them, then use in the filling. You may want to use more than 4 and 1/2 cups to beef up the filling because they’ll cook down a lot. For best results, however, I recommend using fresh.
I’m wanting to make this as a mini pie (5.5 inch). How would I downsize the filling to match the pie pan?
We haven’t tested this as a mini pie, but you can try cutting the filling recipe in half. Let us know if you try it!
A little trick I use for frozen fruit. Thaw on the counter, and then I toss it in a salad spinner and spin the excess juice out. It takes care of the excess juice without squishing the fruit.
First timer here and OMG, this cherry pie was off the hook. I opted for a store bought dough this time though, but the filling…. just omg. I cant stop thinking about it. It was perfection with the almond extract, when I tasted it, i was like “how did she know….”
Anyway, thank you for a magical recipe!
Absolutely great recipe! First Pie I ever made, followed the dough and filling recipe precisely, and it came out delicious. Beginners luck I suppose but didn’t even get a “soggy bottom” as mister Bruno Feldeisen would say. Would recommend to anyone!
Finally a cherry pie filling that completely gels up. Every summer I buy a 22 lb tub of pitted fresh Door County Cherries and they are so juicy, even though I drain them first, my pie always comes out a little runny. This year I finally ditched my aunt’s filling recipe and tried yours, with great success. After reading your tips, I actually let the pie sit overnight to make sure it was completely cooled. As always, I used my favorite Martha Stewart Pate Brisee recipe because I prefer all butter crust. I served the pie a la mode with homemade sour cherry ice cream. Perfection!
First time ever making a pie from scratch and it came out great despite my trepidation. Thanks, sally, your recipes are not just amazing, they’ve given this pastry neophyte the confidence to keep making pies.
Awesome recipe! Thanks so much! My only substitutions were using 1/3 cup of flour instead of cornstarch, and my own shortcrust pastry recipe. Husband said it was the best pie ever! I’ve got it written down for next cherry season, thanks again!
Hi SRP, I’m glad to help. First, thank you for trying this recipe. A couple tips– let the pie cool completely before cutting into it. You can even chill it in the refrigerator, too. Pies with supremely liquid-y fruits/fillings like cherry pie will drastically hold their shape better the cooler they are. Additionally, your filling may benefit from an extra Tbsp of cornstarch.
Good morning Sally.
I made this cherry pie yesterday and also used your all butter pie dough recipe and it was incredible. My one concern was the juices in the pie while cutting it. I’ve done a bit of research online and some say that tapioca flour added to the mix could work. Do you recommend this?
First time making a cherry pie with fresh cherries. This one was simple and delicious- worth the extra time of pitting all of those cherries. I loved the use of almond extract. I used the pie crust recipe that was linked and that turned out great as well. Thank you!
Turned out great. I used an oversized Pyrex pie dish so I probably could have rolled out the (store bought dough) base layer a little more but I did for top. I baked base for 10 min anyway, no rice weight. I did not do lattice but I did add the butter and pricked with a fork plus added egg wash. Oh I forgot, I added 3 cups cherries……LOVED IT! Was too lazy to make dough..LOL
My son, a traveling nurse just sent me some cherries and by Gods blessings I found your recipe, I’m 76 years old and up to now had not made a good pie really liked them, because my husband loves pie I gave it a try. A great and easy crust – I’m hooked and anxious to look at your recipes, The pie was not runny and the crust was flaky – oh I forget I did use 1/2 vodka, 1/2 ice water – I did say I’m 76 (77 in Aug) – still 76
I have tried all my life to make a decent pie crust to no avail with everything from a concrete crust to a sponge crust until I tried your recipe. It is amazing and so is the fresh cherry pie recipe. So glad I found you website and thanks for the great recipes.
We made this recipe and it had fantastic flavor but the filling was very runny and made the bottom crust quite soggy. We love your other pies so we were surprised that it was so liquidy. Is there anything we can do to prevent this in the future?
I’ve tried different pie crust recipes through the years and your flaky pie crust is the best!!!!
My husband loves your sour cherry pie! It’s his favorite! Thank you so much❤️
OMG made this and the crust for 4th of July. It was absolutely the best pie and crust I’ve ever had. Thank you! It was perfect.
Hi Sally, so I really want to make this pie for 4th of July but can’t find almond extract anywhere right now (I live in Germany) Can I substitute it with Amaretto (I guess I woud need more then?) or bitter almond aroma? Or anything else? Thank you
Hi Laura, you can simply omit the almond extract and use vanilla extract instead. I don’t recommend using bitter almond aroma. Happy baking!
Hi Sally! Unfortunately cherries are quite hard to come by where I live, would canned/tinned cherries be ok to use?
Hi Michelle, Canned cherries are packed in a very sugary syrup so I recommend sticking to fresh for this particular recipe.
Loved this pie and so did our family. I’ve become lazier as I get older, so used a Refrigerated roll-out pie crust. We have both a sour and sweet cherry tree and used a combo of the two. I didn’t change anything except to add 3 tablespoons of crystallized ginger which I also put in my rhubarb-strawberry pies and it was wonderful! It was beautiful and delicious. Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Sally,
I’ve made your lemon meringue pie several times – it is a great recipe, so I’ve decided to make this cherry pie tomorrow. I noticed a few folks blind baked the crust but the recipe doesn’t call for that. Do you think it is a good idea?
Hi Rita, I never pre-bake this bottom crust and haven’t had any issues. As long as you bake the pie long enough and let it cool completely, you’ll be great. I like using a glass pie dish so I can see when the bottom pie crust has nicely browned. (So I know it’s done!)
I have never made a cherry pie because I have always been turned off by commercial cherry filling. This recipe was absolutely AMAZING!!!! My husband could not wait 3 minutes let alone 3 hours for the pie to cool. It isn’t overly sweet and the crust recipe is perfect.
I think this is the most common pie recipe I make of Sally’s. I make this pie minimum 3 times per year. My father is a “cherry pie snob.” He has been presented cherry snobs over the years from other relatives and he has not been 100% happy. I make this one and he states it’s the best one. This has nothing to do with me of course – this is all because of Sally. I wouldn’t be too intimidated by pitting the cherries. I use one I bought on Amazon that pits I believe 6 cherries at a time which speeds of the process. Don’t shy away from the almond extract – I loathe it but it does work very well with this pie and I feel it’s really needed to complete the pie. I’ll be making this pie again really soon now that I’m seeing cherries at the grocery store. Happy Father’s Day pie in the works soon!
Awesome pie tutorials for the pie, crust, and lattice weaving. Thank you!!! I finally made a pie so beautiful it could have been photographed! BUT, the filling was still a bit liquidy and runny when cut into – why, Pie Gods, why?!?? I feel like it’s always “something” with pie, which is annoying as I consider myself an above average baker otherwise. It was ever so slightly still warmish on the bottom after 3 1/2 hours when cut, but I had an impatient 9 yr old so I cut anyway. Do you think it would have firmed completely if I had given it longer? It was enough liquid to spoon out 2-3 times so it didn’t seem like it. Of course, liquid meant soggy bottom crust which I find so frustrating. It baked 55 min in a metal USA pan. I finally gave up on glass pans after too many soggy bottoms. My quarantine goal is to master pie and this is as close as I’ve come – crust was excellent and so easy to work with, and filling flavor was great, so I’m getting close! Wondering if I should add more cornstarch or a little flour or gelatin – I did use fresh cherries. Thanks for any tips! I love your site. 🙂
Hi Erin, thank you so much for trying this cherry pie recipe. I swear, swear, swear by letting pies cool completely before cutting into them. Pies with supremely liquid-y fruits/fillings like cherry pie will drastically hold their shape better the cooler they are. Additionally, your filling may benefit from an extra Tbsp of cornstarch. I promise your next cherry pie, with these changes, will be perfect. Feel free to email me if you want to troubleshoot further, too!
Thank you for the reply! I made the pie again the next day since it was so close to being perfect and take two was total success! I made a few adjustments, several of which I took from a King Arthur Flour pie troubleshooting article (I am also a huge KA fan!) – 1. I combined the sugar and cherries and let sit for 30 min, then I drained the liquid and proceeded with adding the rest of the filling ingredients. This was an extra “drain” which I think helped. KA says you can reduce that initial liquid into a syrup and add it back, but I didn’t. 2. I baked my pie on the lowest rack closer to the oven floor for better heat transfer to cook the bottom crust. 3. I made sure to watch that my filling bubbled and boiled through the lattice for 10-15 min, which KA says helps thickening. 4. I cooled my pie overnight. It was fully cooked and not soupy at all! Yay!!! Thanks for an awesome recipe!
Also, your pie crust is a DREAM – I made it twice in two days, and all four discs were easy to work with and rolled effortlessly. I’ve always tried to do all butter with varied success, but I agree the shortening/butter combo is easier to work with, tastes just as delicious, has fab texture, AND it doesn’t turn rock hard in the fridge! I’m not anti-shortening, but I am anti-hydrogenated oils, so I used Spectrum Organic non-hydrogenated shortening. Perfection! I have finally slayed the “Pie Dragon,” thanks to you – I read that you weren’t even making pies until several years ago, so I figured if anyone could get me over my pie hurdle it would be you. Love your website and recipes and can’t wait to make more pies. 🙂
At 64, my first homemade pie crust. Your recipes are divine.
I made your recipe with frozen cherries and it turned out great. Also used your pie crust recipe that I love. I refrigerated filling and crust (separately) overnight and assembled the next day. My husband was delighted with it! Thx!
It turned out great.
The first time I did it I got a soggy bottom so this time I blind baked it and it was great thanks for all the great recipes
can we use canned cherries that have been preserved in water?
Thanks Sally, I’ve never made pie before but with your crust recipe and this guide I managed a pretty decent one!