Cherry Pie

Before I get started on the cherry pie, some of you asked if huckleberries might be available in your area. I'm not always sure I can remember where everyone resides, but I found this on the interwebs and probably should have posted it with my recipe for Huckleberry Muffins.

Where can I find huckleberries? Huckleberries are native to the northwestern United States and Canada, growing from Wyoming west to Alaska, Washington, and Oregon. They also grow in Idaho and Montana. The require elevations of from 2,000 to 11,000 feet.

Are huckleberries grown on farms? Current research says it is almost impossible to domesticate the wild huckleberry species but efforts are being made.

So, there you have it... if you live in the Northwest, go look for some huckleberry bushes... but watch out for bears.

Since moving to Montana a little over a year ago, I've heard several people rave about Flathead Cherries. In researching them, I found that there really is no such thing as "Flathead" cherries, but the cherries grown in the region of the Flathead Lake in northwestern Montana are referred to as such.

These cherries were available at our Farmers Market last Saturday, so we bought a bag. We ate a few and they were delicious... too delicious not to make a cherry pie. I stemmed and pitted them (without the use of one of these).

I used Martha's Pate Brisee for the pie dough. Because the cherries were so sweet and perfect, I only added 3/4 cups sugar and 1/3 cup cornstarch to the halved cherries, put them in the pie shell and baked the pie at 425F for 15 minutes. I then lowered the temperature to 350F and baked for another hour. Don't be laughing at my pie crust... I'm no baker... I'm a cooker :)

What to do with leftover dough? Make cinnamon rolls like my Mom used to. I rolled it out, put cinnamon and sugar on it then sprinkled it with mini-chocolate chips. I rolled it up, cut it into rounds and baked it.

Whenever my Mom would make a pie we would look forward to the pinwheels almost more than the pie!

Now, you can laugh at this... my gardener often tells me that I'm "losing it". Well, I put these pinwheels in plastic bags and then thought "Hmm, I should put them on a plate and take a pretty picture." So, I got a plate out, put five of them on the plate and then my MIL said something to me. After I answered, I picked up the pinwheels from the plate, put them back in the plastic bags and discovered when I uploaded my pictures from the camera that I'd forgotten to take a picture of the pinwheels on the plate.

I'll send you money if you don't tell my gardener.