Summertime pies are all about the fruit. When the season really gets rolling, the pace at the shop is fast and furious. Our days and nights are filled with peeling, coring, hulling, slicing, and quartering a great variety of fruit grown in New York and New Jersey. Our favorite source for the majority of our summer fruits is Wilklow Orchards, a sixth-generation orchard and farm in the rolling hills of upstate New York’s Hudson Valley. The Wilklow family, whom we first met when we were seeking a local source for rhubarb at the Brooklyn farmers’ markets we frequent, has been working their land since 1855.
These days, the Wilklow family sell their fruit at the Brooklyn markets regularly. We were so excited to find a great local source for rhubarb. (Our father had been shipping it to us from his farm in South Dakota!) Little did we know that they would be able to provide us with an abundance of fruits, including strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants, sweet and sour cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums, pears, and, most important, apples. With the utilization of cold storage, they are able to provide us with delicious locally grown apples year-round. We truly believe it makes all the difference for our apple pies.
Sourcing fruit locally and in season will make your pies taste and look so much better than frozen or canned fruit will—not to mention, that’s the way our grandmother did it. This is not to say that you can’t freeze or jar your own fruit for use in pies—you will have good results as well. The “local, in-season” part is what’s important. Fruit that has been picked unripe and shipped in a box across the country will never taste as good as fruit that’s been ripened on the tree and brought into your kitchen that same day. A slice of pie made with freshly picked, sun-ripened fruit is like summer on a plate—enough said.
Cherry season at the pie shop is, well, the pits—that is, for those of us who have to prep a whole case of cherries at a time. For the cherry pie eaters of our community, never fear: whether it’s a good year for cherries or a bad one, we aim to get our hands on as many cherries as possible. We spend hours pitting them (and eating our share) and making them into all manner of pies. One of our favorites is this streusel-topped beauty.
Makes one 9-inch pie
Serves 8 to 10
1⅔ cups streusel (see here), to top
1 small baking apple
5 cups sweet cherries, pitted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons potato starch
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
2 dashes Angostura bitters
We are lucky enough to have our dedicated friends Rachel and Nutty, who come by the pie shop after hours to help pit cherries during fruit season. If you’re planning to make more than one cherry pie, enlist your friends as pitter helpers! See the “Tools” section (see here) for tips on which cherry pitters we like best.
Have ready and refrigerated one partially prebaked pastry-lined 9-inch pie pan, crimped as desired (see here) and streusel to top. Position the oven racks in the bottom and center positions, place a rimmed baking sheet on the bottom rack, and preheat the oven to 425°F.
Peel the apple, and then shred it on the large holes of a box grater. Combine the shredded apple with the cherries, lemon juice, brown sugar, potato starch, cinnamon, cardamom, and bitters in a large bowl and toss until well mixed. Pour the filling into the refrigerated pie shell and evenly distribute the streusel on top.
Place the pie on the rimmed baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the pastry is set and beginning to brown. Lower the oven temperature to 375°F, move the pie to the center oven rack, and continue to bake until the pastry is a deep golden brown and the juices are bubbling throughout, 30 to 35 minutes longer.
Allow to cool completely on a wire rack, 2 to 3 hours. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
The pie will keep refrigerated for 3 days or at room temperature for 2 days.