Cherry Pie Served Up Four Ways

While I try to make as much as possible from scratch, there are some things that are just better when you have a little (or a lot) of extra help. Cherry pie is one of those things. I take two cans of light cherry pie filling and my favorite frozen pie crust, put them together and in 30-40 minutes (plus some cooling time) I will have a dessert that is as delicious as it is easy to make. You may ask why I don’t just take a frozen cherry pie and stick it in the oven? I still haven’t found one whole pie with my favorite filling and my favorite crust. So for now, I’ll stick to my already-easy way of making cherry pie. 

Even though you didn’t make something from scratch doesn’t mean you can’t make it special. I like to dress it up in different ways by topping it off with something unique or giving the recipe a bit of a twist. Here are a few ways you can serve some classic cherry pie.

Cherry Pie with Powdered Sugar and Drizzled Chocolate – This reminds me very much of a Chocolate Cherry Strudel. Take some semi-sweet chocolate chips and heat them in your microwave until melted. You don’t need much for one slice, about a small handful of chips. Heat only just enough until you can drizzle the chocolate. Heat it too much and the chocolate will harden and burn. I heat the chocolate in increments of 30 seconds and keep checking with a spoon until it’s just right. Dust a little powdered sugar over the top of your slice then drizzle the melted chocolate over the top. Enjoy!

Cherry Pie A La Cinnamon Mode – If you are serving your cherry pie warm, serve it with a scoop of your favorite vanilla bean ice cream and dust with some ground cinnamon. The cinnamon flavor adds a kick while the sweetness of the ice cream and the tartness of the cherries balance each other out.

Cherry Pie Milkshake – No joke! There is a new trend of putting actual slices of pie in milkshakes. Take one slice of your cherry pie and add it to your blender with two large scoops of vanilla ice cream and 1 cup of milk. Blend until smooth. Drink while cold. If you don’t like the consistency, add more milk to make it smoother or more ice cream to make it thicker. This should make two milkshakes or one very large one.

Cherry Pie with Crumb Topping – Instead of adding pie dough on top (either as a shell or in a lace pattern), make a crumble topping instead. Take 1 stick of butter at room temperature, 1 egg, 1 cup of flour and ¼ cup of brown sugar and mix until crumbly. If you find it's not crumbly enough for your liking, add a teaspoon or two of flour. Crumble over the top and bake the pie as you normally would. You can serve it with a dollop of fresh whip cream on the side.