Cherry Pie Filling

Cherries are one of my all time favorite fruits.  I'd much rather eat a cherry pie to a cake any day.  I just love em.  I recently bought a bag of cherries and was doing my absolute best to eat them all but sadly wasn't making much progress, so cherry pie came to mind.

During my Internet searching I found this recipe and knew I had to make it.  I love the idea of making my own pie filling, well making anything that takes the place of a canned item actually. Anyway, this recipe was super easy and totally delicious.

I'm not sure if you can replace the cherries for other fruit so if anyone does it please let me know.

After you've pitted all those cherries (if you have gloves you may want to wear them, my fingers were purple all day)  you can just add them to a sauce pan with the other ingredients except the extract.

Thick and delicious!  I'm drooling all over again, I love this stuff.

Please, you gotta try this while the cherries can still be found!  I think you can actually use frozen cherries as well if you miss cherry season however.


Cherry Pie Filling
Recipe from My Baking Addiction

5 to 6 cups fresh pitted cherries, about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds ( I used dark sweet and was 5 cups but not 2 1/2 to 3 pounds, it was only about 1 1/2 pounds I think).
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup granulated sugar - (you might be able to reduce this slightly, mine was sweet since I was using sweet cherries already.  The measurement listed here is for Bing cherries). 
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon almond extract


Put all the ingredients except the almond extract into a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.  Stir more frequently toward the end of the cooking time since this will thicken significantly. Remove from the heat and add the almond extract.  Let cool a little before putting into a container to refrigerate or use directly into a pie or other dessert.