Published July 1, 2010. From Cook's Illustrated.
To tame the cherries’ sweetness and get them to break down to the proper, juicy texture in our sweet cherry pie recipe, we cut back on the amount of sugar we were using and added some pureed plums. We cut the sweet cherries in half and tossed some of them into the food processor along with the plums, then strained out the chewy skins for a soft filling. Finally, we placed the sweet cherry pie on a preheated baking sheet to ensure that the bottom crust crisped up before the fruit filling could seep through.
Vodka is essential to the texture of the crust and imparts no flavor—do not substitute. This dough will be moister and more supple than most standard pie dough and will require more flour to roll out (up to 1/4 cup). The tapioca should be measured first, then ground in a coffee grinder or food processor for 30 seconds. If you are using frozen fruit, measure it frozen, but let it thaw before making the filling; if you don’t, you run the risk of partially cooked fruit and undissolved tapioca.
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