Cherry Jello Pie
Made with refreshing jello and sweet juicy cherries in a flaky pie crust, this easy no-bake cherry jello pie recipe is the perfect summer dessert.
I’m thrilled to bring you this deliciously easy cherry pie recipe today. I just love cold fruit pies and this one is a new spin on my fresh strawberry pie for the cherry lovers among us! It was actually inspired by the children’s book, Enemy Pie, which has a recipe to go with it. My daughter’s librarian is truly the best! The story goes that the perfect way to kill your enemies is to make them your friends by baking a Cherry Enemy Pie.
Since it uses canned cherries, this is one of those pies you can keep all of the ingredients on hand for and make whenever the mood strikes you. You only need a few other ingredients too: sugar, cherry jello, cornstarch, and a pie crust.
Trust me when I say this cherry jello pie is so easy to make. We just need to cook the cherry pie filling, which only takes about 10 minutes. Then you have to patiently wait for it to cool before you pour it into the baked pie shell, which is filled with canned cherries. After a little bit more chill time, it’s ready to serve.
Let me tell you, the combination of the flaky pie crust, refreshing jello, and juicy cherries is a flavor, texture, and taste sensation! Add a little whipped cream on top and folks, I just can’t get enough.
If you’re on the hunt for a cherry cream cheese pie instead, click here. Not let’s whip up this deliciously fresh-tasting cherry jello pie recipe.
Recipe Ingredients
- Sugar
- Sweet pitted cherries
- Cherry gelatin
- Cornstarch
- Regula-sized pie crust (store-bought or here’s my recipe for an easy homemade pie crust).
How to Make Cherry Jello Pie
In a medium saucepan, place your gelatin, sugar, and cornstarch.
Stir those together.
Pour in your water and stir again.
Now place this over medium-high heat and stir constantly until it becomes translucent.
This will take about 10 minutes or so. It won’t become totally clear unless you are really, really patient.
I knew a patient person once – and it wasn’t me. So let’s just go for translucent.
Basically, you want to cook it long enough for everything to dissolve together and form a gel of sorts.
Then set that aside and let it cool for a bit (about half an hour).
Once cooled, drain the cherries well and place them in your baked pie crust.
See this pretty crust? It’s my mix in the pan one. It’s so easy and I love how it tastes.
Now pour your cooled cherry pie gel over the cherries.
Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.
It will look a little like this when it’s time to serve it to your friends, families, loved ones, and your very best enemies!
I highly recommend adding whipped cream (here’s my homemade whipped cream recipe) and a fresh or maraschino cherry on top!
Storage
Store leftover pie in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. I don’t recommend freezing jello pie.
Recipe Notes
- For best results, chill the pie overnight. This is a great pie recipe to make in advance!
- You can use any kind of pie crust, including a graham cracker crust or even an Oreo cookie crust.
Check out these other treasured cherry recipes:
Easy Crescent Cherry Cream Cheese Cobbler
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 3 tbsp cherry-flavored gelatin mix
- 1 15-ounce can sweet pitted cherries
- 3 heaping tbsp cornstarch
- 1 regular-sized pie crust baked, homemade pie crust recipe,
Instructions
- Combine sugar, cornstarch, and dry gelatin mix and stir well. Add water and cook until thick and clear over medium-high heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching.1 cup sugar, 3 tbsp cherry-flavored gelatin mix, 3 heaping tbsp cornstarch, 1 cup water
- Set aside and let cool for about 30 minutes.
- Drain cherries well and arrange them in the bottom of the baked pie shell.1 15-ounce can sweet pitted cherries, 1 regular-sized pie crust
- When the pie filling is cool, pour it over the cherries and chill the pie until ready to serve. Serve with whipped cream.
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
~Abraham Lincoln
As I was growing up they didn’t have all the flavored medicines so I had to take just the nasty tasting ones. So I didn’t have an aversion to cherries. That’s good because we had a huge cherry tree in our back yard. Cherry pies were one of my favorites and mom made great cherry pies. Actually all her pies were so good.
This one sounds great and I can’t wait to try it. Now I want to buy the book so I can read it to my grandchildren and even some of the neighborhood children.
What a delightful story! And Christy, you read it so well!
My husband LOVES a good cherry pie. I might have to be sweet and make this for him.
I loved the video!! So cute!!
I hope this doesn’t make me into an enemy ;)… but I have to tell you tell you that there is a typo in the step by step directions. It’s after you cook and make the gel. It says to set aside and “cook for a bit, about half an hour”…. I think it should be “cool a bit”. Just don’t want anyone to get confused. 🙂 🙂
If anyone decides to make an enemy out of a sweet person like you, it’s surely their loss! Thank you for pointing it out, I went and fixed it and since you pointed it out so early most folks will never even know! Have a great day Colleen!
Saw you on Paula Deen yesterday and I must say – i’d rather listen to you talk all day than her! I think she’s right – being from Alabama and living in quite a few ‘other’ states – we do talk SO much more Southern! Love you and all your recipes!
Christy did you mean for this to say cook or should it read cool?
“Then set that aside and let it cook for a bit, about half an hour.”
Looks very yummy. 🙂
I bought your cookbook a while back and have really enjoyed it. Just made the apple spice muffins before church yesterday and they were amazing! When you speak of your family and their humble beginnings it reminds me of my own. Keep the good recipes coming and the stories too!
Cherry pie! I’ve ever eaten cherry pie. I didn’t have my first cherry really unt I was 17 because I’d always had an aversion to them as the medicine I had as a kid was ‘cherry’ and it always made me throw up! But once I had my first real cherry I realized that the medicine wasn’t cherry flavored, just nasty flavored. Lol
Oh I also meant to say that pies aren’t really as popular here as they seem to be over there so don’t be too alarmed that I’ve said I’ve never had cherry pie!
LOL! I second that on the medicine being nasty flavored!! If you ever wanna taste something really nasty, try Robutussin next time you’re in the states. MEEEHHYUK! My mama used to give that to us at night, when we had been coughing and were half asleep.
Sure woke you up fast! This is really easy to make, Su, If you do make it, you should just call it “Enemy Pie” and see how your friends look at you when you go to serve it to them! hehehe
We have Robitussin here too. It’s not the exact same but it tastes just as bad here too!
Gals, I’m still chuckling. I think I need to get my eyes fixed or youthen up because I didn’t read “enemy” I changed the last letter to an “a,” and that made it something ENTIRELY different.