Homemade Cherry Pie Filling

This post wasn’t planned this morning. I was making some homemade cherry pie filling from cherries I had bought last week in preparation for making fresh cherry pie bars (for tomorrow!). I was on the phone with a friend, mentioned what I was doing and she begged me to share my recipe. No begging required! I’ll be honest it’s one of those recipes that hardly seems a recipe; just a couple of standard ingredients used together to thicken that results in a glaze that holds together whatever fruit that is used. It follows a pretty time worn tradition of adding some liquid, sugar, cornstarch and often a flavoring extract to fruit. Everything is heated until the fruit has softened a bit and the liquid thickens and binds it together…easy peasy and Voila!! Fresh fruit is now ready to use in a layered and iced cookie bar.

Funny but I would never actually do this to make a pie…for those it’s as simple as mixing the fruit with sugar and cornstarch and the baking process takes care of the thickening…this is just what I do want to use a fruit as an ice cream topping or as mentioned for a layered bar that originally called for a can of pie cherries (but these are so much better!).

Certainly not required but I used the last of a bottle of Luxardo Cherry Liqueur instead of the water in the recipes. Might this be why I can’t stop sampling the goods? Silly me…like they wouldn’t taste good? :)

Homemade Cherry Pie Filling

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 6 Tbsp water (I used 1/4 cup Luxardo Cherry Liqueur and 2 Tbsp water)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 4 cups fresh, pitted cherries, about 1 1/2 lbs ( I used Bing but you can use sour cherries; you will have to adjust the sugar accordingly)
• 1/4 tsp almond extract (use vanilla for blueberries or peaches)

Preparation

1. Combine lemon juice, water or liqueur, sugar and cornstarch in a medium pan and mix thoroughly. Add cherries and gently stir to coat with liquid.
2. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat to low and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently and gently to not break up cherries; liquid mixture should be thickened.
3. Add butter and almond extract, stir gently to combine.
4. Cool.

Notes

Can be refrigerated for a couple of days in the refrigerator; this method is not like canning so it does NOT insure longevity!

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