Ingredients
Pastry Crust:
1 cups flour
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup cold water
Pinch of salt
Ingredients:
3 cups red tart pie cherries
¾ cup sugar
1 TBS balsamic vinegar
½ TBS lemon juice
½ tsp black pepper
1 TBS water
4 TBS hot water
2 TBS cornstarch
2 TBS butter
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Pastry Crust:
Cut shortening into the flour until the particles are the size of small peas. Dissolve the salt into the ice-cold water. Sprinkle in the water until the flour mixture is moistened. Gather the pastry into a ball and refrigerate overnight. Roll out on a floured surface. Fold the pastry into quarters, unfold and ease into the pie pan.
In a large saucepan, mix the cherries, sugar, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, black pepper and 2 TBS of water. Cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil.
Mix the hot water with the cornstarch to form a paste. Slowly pour into cherry mix, stirring constantly, making sure there are no lumps. Let simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat, add the butter, stirring to incorporate it into the filling and let cool in the refrigerator.
Pour cherry filling into the unbaked pie shell. Place top crust layer over filling and remove excess around edges. Flute the crust and cut vents into the top (can be creative and make fun patterns and shapes like cherries or hearts, lattice crust, etc.).
Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees for an additional 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.