Minute Tapioca Cherry Pie

Minute Tapioca Cherry Pie is an easy cherry pie recipe that calls for Minute Tapioca. This is a quick cooking pearl-form of tapioca which is mostly known as the main ingredient in lumpy, chewy, delicious tapioca pudding. However, long-time bakers know that it’s also useful for thickening pies and has some advantages over cornstarch and flour. Tapioca makes a glossier, more translucent filling. It is gluten-free, can stand up to acidic ingredients and in some cases makes the pie filling thicker.

Thanks to interest in gluten-free baking, fine tapioca starch is easier to find these days and is the ideal form of tapioca for pies. However, the pearled Minute Tapioca is still a fine option. It just requires softening.

If you have a box of Minute Tapioca and want to try using it in a fruit pie, this vintage cherry pie recipe from The Vintage Recipe Project is a fun one.

Thawed Frozen Cherries or Jarred Morello Cherries

I found the original recipe Minute Tapioca Cherry Pie recipe while searching for ways to use some that I'd bought for a slow cooker dish. The recipe calls for sour cherries and their juice, but I used thawed frozen dark cherries and they worked just fine. After making the original version of the pie, I made it again using a jar of Morello cherries from Trader Joe's. Because a 24 oz jar of Morello cherries only yields about 1 ½ cups of cherries, the new pie was very shallow. But shallow doesn't necessarily mean bad because you get a higher proportion of crust. Update: Or streusel! The streusel is now my go-to topping for this.

Dark Morello Cherries Version

So here's my version of a cherry pie that calls for only 1 jar of Morello cherries.  You can make it with a double crust or use the crumb topping (streusel) pictured below for even more flavor and texture variation. If you don't want it to be quite so shallow, you can try to drum up a smaller pie plate or make it as minis.

I still haven't tried doubling the Morello cherries version of the pie, but I think it would work. We just like the smaller size for weeknight home desserts.

Using Tapioca Flour Instead of Minute

This recipe is for a Minute Tapioca pie, but if you have regular tapioca starch you can use it instead. So far the replacement that's worked well for me is to use 2 tablespoons of (15 grams) of tapioca starch in place of the 1 ¼ tablespoon of tapioca pearls.

• Tapioca Flour Brownies
• Blueberry Pie With Ground Tapioca
• Cherry Cheesecake Pie
• Cassava Flour Brownies
• White Chip Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe

Minute Tapioca Cherry Pie

Anna

This is a pie I make with Trader Joe’s Dark Morello Cherries – the kind that come in a large glass jar. Aldi also sells similar cherries. You’ll need one jar of cherries for a 9 inch shallow pie, but you can double the filling and make a deeper, higher fruit pie if you need to.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Cooling Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 50 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

 

• Enough crust for a double crust pie or 1 crust if using crumb topping
• ½ cup sugar (100 grams)
• 1 ¼ tablespoons Minute Tapioca or 2 T. tapioca starch
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 ½ cups drained dark Morello cherries from one 24 oz jar
• ¼ cup cherry liquid from jar
• ¼ teaspoon almond extract
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons butter (omit if using the crumb topping) cut into thin slices

Crumb Topping (Optional)

• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons flour (75 grams)
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar (36 grams)
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (24 grams)
• 1 pinch salt
• ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons soft and squishy unsalted butter (salted okay too) (56 grams)

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Put a rimmed baking sheet in to preheat along with the oven.
• Have ready a 9 inch pie plate lined with pie dough. Also, if you are going to make a one crust version with the streusel, you might want to make that first and keep it chilled while assembling the pie.
• In a mixing bowl, stir together sugar, tapioca pearls (or tapioca starch) and salt.
• Add the cherries and toss to coat, then stir in cherry juice, almond extract and vanilla. Allow the mixture to stand for 15 minutes.
• Pour mixture into pie dish using only as much as need (you may have more filling depending on the depth of your dish -- if you overfill, it will bubble over). This only applies to the double version. Dot with butter. Roll out your top crust and lay it over. For a double crust pie, lay the second pie crust over, then seal and vent. Alternatively, make a lattice. For a crumb crust top, save the second crust and sprinkle with streusel topping. Directions below.
• Set the pie on the hot rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes. Let the pie cool for several hours, then chill slightly. Return to room temperature and cut.

Optional Streusel or Crumb Crust Topping

• Mix the flour, both sugars, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl. Stir in very soft butter to coat, then put in the refrigerator until ready to use. Crumble over the top. The butter should be almost melted. I've also used melted butter, but it's best to use very soft butter if possible.

Keyword Minute Tapioca, Morello Cherries

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