4th of July is a big deal in our home, especially with my husband being a proud Army EOD soldier. So this year I decided to go all out and make a Star and Stripes Pie from scratch. This pie was a labor of love and worth all the work. I have included all the steps below for homemade cherry pie filling, blueberry pie filling, and extra flaky pie crust along with how to assemble the Stars and Stripes Pie. To save time you can use canned blueberry and cherry pie filling and premade refrigerated pie dough. I prepared the pie fillings and dough the day before so most of my prep was done and on the 4th I just had to assemble and bake!

Our 4th of July weekend was jam packed with barbecues, pool parties, fireworks, and family time!
I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate our Independence Day.

First stop: fireworks tent! How cute is my little patriotic babe?

My little fireworks shopper. Made her Daddy proud!

Then we stopped for fro yo before going to a friend’s barbecue.

Print Recipe

Stars and Stripes Cherry and Blueberry Pie

Serves 10

Ingredients

For the pie:

Extra Flaky Pie Crust double crust, recipe below
Cherry Pie filling recipe below
Blueberry Pie filling recipe below
1 large egg slightly beaten in a cup
3 tbsp Turbinado sugar

For the Extra Flaky Pie Pastry:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp cold vegetable shortening cut into pieces
1/2 cup cold water

For the Cherry Pie Filling:

5 to 6 cups fresh pitted sweet cherries about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds (I used Bing)
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
4 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp almond extract

For the Blueberry Pie Filling:

2 cups blueberries - fresh or frozen
6 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp corn starch
pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

For the pie:

Preheat oven to 400°F.
On lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin, roll 1 pastry round into a 12-in. circle.
Fit into a 9-in. pie plate, letting edges overhang.
Bend a clean 6-in. square of cardboard in middle forming a wedge. Place in upper left corner of pie (like hands of a clock pointing to 9 and 12).
Fill with blueberry pie filling.
Spoon cherry pie filling into rest of pie. Lift out cardboard.
Roll other pastry round into a 10-in. circle. With a pastry wheel or knife (I used a garnish knife) cut round in five 1/2-in.-wide strips.
With cookie cutter, cut 5 or 6 stars from rest of pastry
Brush strips and stars with beaten egg; sprinkle with sanding sugar.
Starting in middle of pie, carefully place three long strips, evenly spaced, across filling toward bottom edge.
Cut remaining 2 strips into 4-in.-long pieces.
Lay over cherry filling on upper right corner.
Press ends of strips into edge of crust. Roll overhang of bottom crust up over ends of strips to form an even rim.
Flute or crimp rim (I use a fork). Brush rim with beaten egg; sprinkle with sugar.
Place stars on upper left corner of pie (on blueberry filling).
Bake 30 minutes in the center of the oven. I place a aluminum foil covered baking sheet on the rack below to catch any juice the bubbles over.
Reduce heat to 350°F; bake 25 to 30 minutes longer until pastry is golden brown and filling bubbles.
Place on wire rack and cool completely.
Cut into slices and serve warm or at room temp.

For the pie crust:

(I make this in a food processor but it can also be made by hand or with a mixer)
Put the flours, sugar, and salt in the food processor.
Pulse several times to mix.
Scatter the butter over the dry ingredients and pulse 5 or 6 times to cut in.
Fluff the mixture with a fork, lifting it up from the bottom of the bowl.
Scatter the shortening over the flour and pulse 5 or 6 times.
Fluff the mixture again.
Drizzle half of the water over the flour mixture and pulse 5 or 6 times.
Fluff the mixture and sprinkle in the remaining water.
Pulse 5 or 6 more times, until the dough starts to form clumps.
When it reaches this point, do not continue to process.
Empty the crumbs into a large bowl.
Using your hands, pack the dough as you would a snowball.
If making a double crust, divide the dough in half, making one half-for your bottom crust-a little larger than the other.
Knead each piece 2 or 3 times.
Put each in the center of a piece of plastic wrap and flatten it into a disk about 3/4 inch thick.
Wrap in the plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about an hour or overnight.

For the cherry pie filling:

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine cherries, water, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch.
Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes.
Stir in almond extract.
Cool slightly before using as a topping.

For the blueberry pie filling:

In a medium saucepan, heat blueberries over medium heat until they release their juices & soften. (about 7-9 minutes)
In a separate bowl- whisk sugar, cornstarch, & salt.
Once your blueberries have cooked, pour in dry mixture & thoroughly combine.
Heat & stir constantly until mix thickens- 2-3 minutes.
Remove from heat & stir in lemon juice.
Transfer to glass jar & let cool in refrigerator.

Notes

You can substitute premade pie dough and canned pie filling if you would like.

You also need: 1 1/2- to 2-in. star-shaped cookie cutter

Some crust cooks faster and sometimes the edges brown faster than the crust in the center. Adjust heat accordingly and cover the edges of crust with aluminum foil for last 20-30 minutes if needed.
You can see in the pics above my outside crust got pretty dark!

Crust recipe from the cookbook "Pie" by Ken Haedrich.
Cherry filling recipe from www.mybakingaddiction.com
Blueberry filling adapted from www.kleinworthco.com

I absolutely love how beautiful ripe, red cherries are! Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Pitting cherries takes some work. If you don’t have a cherry pitter try using a plastic straw like my husband did. Be aware: it’s a messy job (but someone has to do it- thanks Ashton!).

All washed and pitted and ready to cook.

Add to a saucepan over medium heat and stir in cornstarch, lemon juice, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Turn heat to low and let cook for about 10 minutes.

The secret ingredient for cherry pie filling: Almond Extract (I love it in sugar cookies too!).

Remove from heat, stir in the almond extract and let cool before serving or adding to the pie.

In a saucepan, heat blueberries over medium heat

until they soften and release their juices (about 7 minutes).

In a bowl combine sugar, cornstarch,and salt. Mix into blueberries.

Stir until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Cool before adding to pie.

For the pie dough:

Put the flours, sugar, and salt in the food processor.

Pulse several times to mix.

Scatter the butter over the dry ingredients and pulse 5 or 6 times to cut in.

Fluff the mixture with a fork, lifting it up from the bottom of the bowl.

Scatter the shortening over the flour and pulse 5 or 6 times.
Fluff the mixture again.

Drizzle half of the water over the flour mixture and pulse 5 or 6 times.

Fluff the mixture and sprinkle in the remaining water.

Pulse 5 or 6 more times, until the dough starts to form clumps.

When it reaches this point, do not continue to process.

Empty the crumbs into a large bowl.

Empty the crumbs into a large bowl.
Using your hands, pack the dough as you would a snowball.
If making a double crust, divide the dough in half, making one half-for your bottom crust-a little larger than the other.
Knead each piece 2 or 3 times.
Put each in the center of a piece of plastic wrap and flatten it into a disk about 3/4 inch thick.
Wrap in the plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about an hour or overnight.