I Tried King Arthur’s Cherry Pie Recipe and Have Some Thoughts

No baking showdown would be complete without checking out what King Arthur Baking Company has to offer. When I went looking for cherry pies on their site I found the recipe for Mr. Washington’s Cherry Pie, which has 4.5 stars. The reviews were promising and the options of using canned, frozen, or fresh cherries and quick-cooking tapioca or King Arthur pie filling enhancer suggested that it was a thoroughly tested recipe. I was also intrigued by the addition of cinnamon in the recipe, which is somewhat unusual for a summer pie. Would this dessert do George proud? There was only one way to find out.

Get the recipe: King Arthur Baking Company’s Mr. Washington’s Cherry Pie

First, make and prepare pie dough. Then combine cherries, sugar, cinnamon, and tapioca in a bowl and stir together. Add almond extract and salt, stir, and let the filling set for 20 minutes. Spoon the filling into prepared pie crust and dot with butter. Top the filling with remaining dough in a lattice pattern. Bake for 40 minutes or until the crust is golden-brown and the filling is bubbling. Cool the pie completely before serving. 

I opted for quick-cooking tapioca because most grocery stores carry it, but maybe I should have used the pie filling enhancer. Before pouring the filling into the pie shell, you have to let the filling sit for 20 minutes to give the tapioca time to dissolve and work its thickening magic. Unfortunately, because the recipe doesn’t direct you to stir mid-way to ensure every tapioca pearl dissolves, there are some tapioca pearls left intact. This means you have tapioca-encrusted cherries, and the tapioca bits harden when baked, particularly where the cherries peek out of the crust via the gaps in the lattice. These crunchy bits in the pie were less than pleasant. 

The filling is also very thick — a little too thick. The tapioca made the cherry filling gelatinous, which is great for a sturdy slice of pie, but I didn’t care for the texture. Flavor-wise I was not a fan of the cinnamon in the filling, which gave the pie a holiday flavor versus a bright and floral summer treat. 

Next time, I would use King Arthur Pie Filling Enhancer to see if it helped improve the texture of the filling and would help me avoid the tapioca-encrusted cherries. I would also skip the cinnamon. I found it overpowering and it competed with the natural flavor of the cherries.

Overall rating: 4/10