Cherry pie is quite timeless, especially when baked to a bubbly golden brown and topped with vanilla ice cream. It's no wonder it's been around for ages.
Remove your pie crusts from the fridge and allow them to thaw for about 15-20 minutes before starting the pie.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
If you’re using fresh cherries you’ll need to pit them and remove the stems too. If you’re using frozen cherries, no need to thaw or do anything to them.
Place the cherries in a bowl. Add the bourbon and a ½ Cup of the raw sugar (turbinado sugar) to the cherries. Save the rest of the sugar for later.
Then add the cornstarch, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and almond extract to the cherries. Mix them around with a spoon until they’re fully coated.
Place one of your pie crusts into a 9-9.5 inch pie dish.
Add the cherry filling right into the crust.
Cut your butter up into smaller pieces and place the pieces on top of the cherries evenly spaced out.
Take your other pie crust and place it on a piece of parchment paper. Using a pastry wheel, cookie cutter edge, or knife cut the second crust into about 8-10 even strips.
Lay the strips on top of the cherries in any pattern you’d like. I laid five pieces down vertically and then three across the top horizontally.
Next, trim off any excess dough around the edges and tuck the edges into the bottom crust, pinching them to it (you can use a sprinkle of water here if you are having trouble getting them to stick).
Crack the egg into a bowl and add about 1 Tbsp of room temp water to it. Mix it to make an egg wash.
Brush the top of your pie crust with the egg wash. Sprinkle the crust with the remaining raw sugar.
Place the pie in the oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes.
If the edges are starting to get brown at this point, you may want to cover them with a baking protector or foil. Just fold the foil so it’s only covering the edges of the pie (It should lay right on the edges in a circle, leaving the middle exposed).
Place the pie back in the oven, reduce the heat to 350 degrees and cook for another 30 to 40 minutes.
Once the pie is done cooking, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for about 3 hours on a cookie rack.
Notes
Ovens can vary especially when cooking pies, when it’s ready your crust should be a nice golden brown all over, you should see the Cherry filling starting to bubble, and the bottom should not be translucent anymore, but cooked through.
Fresh or frozen cherries work well. You can also substitute Rainier Cherries for the dark sweet cherries.
If you'd like to omit the alcohol, substitute the bourbon for cranberry juice. You can even use cranberry cherry juice. This will still help balance and add complexity to the flavors of the pie.