We Americans love desserts. While it’s hard to choose between all the amazing desserts that our fine country has to offer, for us, nothing is better than pie. And it seems that the rest of the country agrees.

When the average American lists his or her favorite desserts, they tend to be ice cream, cake, cookies and, you guessed it, pie. Even better… you can combine two of America’s favorite desserts for pie à la mode. According to the American Pie Council, about 186 million pies are sold each year in grocery stores alone. Now that’s a lot of pie!

The History of Pie

The purpose of a pastry shell was mainly to serve as a baking dish, storage container, and serving vessel, and these are often too hard to actually eat.  For hundreds of years, it was the only form of baking container used, meaning everything was a pie.

The first pies, called “coffins” or “coffyns” (the word actually meant a basket or box) were savory meat pies with the crusts or pastry being tall, straight-sided with sealed-on floors and lids.  Open-crust pastry (not tops or lids) were known as “traps.”  These pies held assorted meats and sauce components and were baked more like a modern casserole with no pan (the crust itself was the pan, its pastry tough and inedible).  These crust were often made several inches thick to withstand many hours of baking.

6000 B.C. – Historians have recorded that the roots of pie can loosely be traced back to the ancient Egyptians during the Neolithic Period or New Stone Age beginning around 6000 BC.  The Neolithic Period is characterized by the use of stone tools shaped by polishing or grinding, the domestication of plants or animals, the establishment of permanent villages, and the practice of such crafts as pottery and weaving.  These early forms of pies are known as galettes, which are essentially rustic free-form pies.  Our ancestors made these pie-like treats with oat, wheat, rye, and barley, then filled them with honey and baked the dish over hot coals.

Animated Pies

Animated pies or pyes were the most popular banquet entertainment. The nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence . . . four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie,” refers to such a pie.  According to the rhyme, “When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing.  Wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the King.”  In all likelihood, those birds not only sang, but flew briskly out at the assembled guests.  Rabbits, frogs, turtles, other small animals, and even small people (dwarfs) were also set into pies, either alone or with birds, to be released when the crust was cut.  The dwarf would emerge and walk down the length of the table, reciting poetry, sketching the guests, or doing tricks.

A Cheeky History of Pie

Laws of Pie

First Law of Pies: Pies must have a pastry made from some sort of grain, wheat, rice, cracker or cookie crumbs. No pastry, No pie!

Second Law of Pies: Pies must be baked in an oven at some time of the process or pseudo bake –  like no baked pie custards. Pies are not fried, boiled or steamed.

Third Law of Pies: A pie shall be baked in some form of a dish – metal, ceramic or glass.

Fourth Law of Pie: A pie in America must have a bottom crust of some sort of pastry.

Fifth Law of Pie: A pie must have a pastry that comes up on the sides to contain its filling.

British tradition says that the first cherry pie was served to Queen Elizabeth I in the late 16th century. (Britain Magazine)

Fun Facts about Cherries and Cherry Pies

The pie came to America when the first English settlers arrived in America in 1607.

Cherry pie is often referred to as a Great American Dish.

Unlike our pies that are cooked in round pie plates, early cherry pies were cooked in long narrow pans called “coffyns.”

Fruit pies first appeared in the 1500s. (Britain Magazine)

The crusty top/lid of a pie actually served to preserve the food as a sort of container – in fact the shells were tough and basically inedible, but they served well as a sort of utensil to eat the filling before being discarded. (Britain Magazine)

The pie crust did not get its own culinary term until the American Revolution

Cherry pie is the 4th most popular pie in the USA with apple pie being more popular.

4th – Cherry Pie The popularity of cherry pie is in part thanks to the state of Michigan, which produces about 75% of tart cherries in the U.S. The state is also home to the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Mich., which is known as the cherry capital of the world. https://www.cherryfestival.org/

Thanks, Michigan, for bringing us these tasty and tart treats!

Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of all pies in 1644, believing the consumption of pie to be a pagan pleasure. This has some debate.

Mince pie ban

Legend:It has been claimedthat the act of eating a mince pie on Christmas Day is illegal in England.

Evidence: Festive celebrations, including mince pies and Christmas puddings, were reportedly banned in Oliver Cromwell’s England as part of efforts to tackle gluttony.

But the ban did not survive when Charles II became king. In fact, the Law Commission says none of the 11 laws that remained on the statute books after Cromwell’s reign related to mince pies. Verdict: Myth. (BBC)  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17610820

The best choice of cherries for cherry pies are tart and a little sour, such as Morello, Bing, or Montmorency. These cherries keep their shape well during baking process and give your pie a great flavor.

Cherry Pie Recipes

Cheery cherry cheese pie recipe

yield: 8

prep time: 20 MINUTES

additional time: 3 HOURS

total time: 3 HOURS 20 MINUTES

Ingredients

• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1 can (14 oz) Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup ReaLemon lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 Johnston’s graham cracker Ready-Crust pie crust
• 1 16-ounce can cherry pie filling, chilled

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, beat cheese until light and fluffy.
2. Add sweetened condensed milk; blend thoroughly.
3. Stir in ReaLemon and vanilla.
4. Pour into pie crust. Chill at least 3 hours or until well set.
5. Top with the desired amount of pie filling before serving.
6. Refrigerate leftovers.

Impossible Cherry Pie

The pie that’s impossibly easy because it makes its own crust. And it’s filled with the harvest-fresh goodness of Thank You Brand cherry pie filling.

1 cup milk
2 tablespoons margarine or butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup Bisquick baking mix
1/4 cup sugar
1 can (21 ounces) Thank You cherry pie filling (or Thank You Lite cherry pie filling)
Streusel (below)

Heat oven to 400°. Grease pie plate, 10 x 1 1/2 inches. Beat all ingredients except pie filling and Streusel until smooth, 15 seconds in blender on high or 1 minute with hand beater. Pour into plate. Spoon pie filling evenly over top. Bake 25 minutes. Top with Streusel. Bake until Streusel is brown, about 10 minutes longer. Cool; refrigerate any remaining pie.

Streusel: Cut 2 tablespoons firm margarine or butter into 1/2 cup Bisquick baking mix, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon until crumbly. Recipe card taken from: https://recipecurio.com/impossible-cherry-pie-recipe-clipping/

Pie crust Ads

Easy Cherry Pie | Pillsbury Recipe

Bisquick cherry cobbler

How Are Pie and Cobbler Different?

While the sheer enjoyment resulting from either fruit dessert is about equal (and both play quite nicely with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or fluffy dollop of whipped cream), pie and cobbler require different levels of finesse. Cobblers are rougher and perhaps more rustic, while an expert pie dough takes a bit of practice to get just right. A cobbler recipe can be whipped up in roughly an hour, whereas a pie can take all day. These pie sub-categories are all very similar in that they’re based on the same two ingredients: fruit and dough. But a few key details distinguish one from the other.

One way to differentiate between pie and cobbler is through the crust. Pies are encased in pastry, either just on the bottom or on both top and bottom. Cobblers, on the other hand, are simply topped with some sort of baked pastry or dough. Aside from that fundamental distinction, both pies and cobblers are infinitely variable.

Pies are typically baked in a simple crust made from fat, flour and water, though your own family recipe might include eggs, vinegar or other ingredients. Most pies are baked in a pie pan, a round dish with sloping sides.

Cobblers have one crust, and it goes on top. Fill your favorite baking dish with fruit, put a crust over it, and you’re good to go. That part is universally accepted, but your choice of crust sparks a whole different discussion.

• Some bakers simply use a sheet of pie crust, perhaps rolled a little more thickly than it would be for a pie. 
• Others use some form of biscuit dough, either rolled and cut or simply dropped on top of the fruit from a large spoon. 
• Yet another tradition calls for a wet, cake-like batter to be poured over the fruit, baking to a golden finish on top but soft and rich with juice underneath. For convenience-minded bakers, that type of crust is now often made with a boxed cake mix. 

Which crust you choose is a matter of regional or even personal preference, but they’re all perfectly valid options. Use what you have, and don’t worry about it. Cobblers have always been a rustic dessert, and using what you’ve got is a fundamental part of the country-kitchen ethos. That’s why cobblers have so many cousins, with so many names. https://www.leaf.tv/articles/difference-between-pie-and-cobbler/

Pro Tips for the Best Cherry Pie:

Freeze the unbaked pie 10-15 minutes while the oven preheats (keeps crust from browning too fast).

Brush the pie crust with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp milk or water) and sprinkle with coarse sugar just before baking.

Arrange oven rack to the lower third of the oven.

For easier cleanup: place a sheet of foil (or slide a sheet pan) under the pie once you turn the heat down to 350˚F.

Pie from above video

Cherry Pie Ingredients:

• 6 cups cherries, pitted (2 1/4 lbs)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cups sugar (use 1 cup for sour cherry pie)
• 5 Tbsp corn starch
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp butter, diced, to dot the top

Egg Wash:

• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp milk (or water)
• 1 Tbsp coarse sugar

Instructions

• Make pie crusts and refrigerate 1 hour before using. Arrange oven rack in the lower third of the oven.
• In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup sugar, 5 Tbsp corn starch and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
• Pit cherries and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Sprinkle on sugar/cornstarch mixture and stir together until evenly moist.
• Roll the first pie crust disk into a 13″ circle and transfer to a 9″ wide pie pan. The edges should hang a little over the edge of the pan. Pour the cherry mixture over the bottom crust along with any accumulated juices. Dot with Butter.
• Roll the second crust into a 12″ circle and use a pizza cutter to slice into ten 1-inch strips. Using the 10 strips of dough, create a lattice crust over the top (see photo tutorial on Natasha’s Kitchen). Tuck in the excess dough at edges then pinch the edges to seal or crimp edges if desired. Refrigerate pie 30 minutes (or freeze 15 minutes) while preheating oven to 425˚F.
• Beat together 1 egg and 1 Tbsp milk or water and brush the egg wash over the lattice crust and edges. Sprinkle the top with 1 Tbsp coarse sugar. Bake in the lower third of the oven at 425 ˚F for 25 minutes.
• Place a sheet of foil or baking sheet beneath the pie, reduce oven temperature to 350˚F, and bake additional 30-35 minutes, or until crust is golden and cherry juice is bubbling through the lattice top.

Cherry Pie Music

Cherry Pie by Marvin & Johnny 1954 (Original)

https://youtu.be/-tPjZOXNEXo

Same song re -done by Different singers. Skip & Flip – Cherry Pie 1960

On February 3, 1959, a small plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. The accident killed three American rock and roll icons: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson. Their pilot, Roger Peterson, also perished. American singer-songwriter Don McLean called it The Day The Music Died, in his famous song—one of my all time favorites—“American Pie.”

I hope you have learned a few things from this post. I never thought that Pie was so Complicated. Today we salute Queen Elizabeth I, for this Delectable Fruitgasm we call, Cherry Pie! If you liked this Post, please feel free to Like/Share/ and Subscribe to my Page.