This recipe provides a filling for cherry pastries, from hand pies, galettes, to a full-on cherry pie. Pre-cooking the filling ensures a good slice that isn't too firm or too runny. Montmorency cherries are bright red, with white flesh, and soft texture. They're a and astringent, so not for eating fresh, but are the ultimate cherry for baking and the only real option for cherry pie. When baking with these, they need a decent amount of sugar and then they transform into that bright red, cherry-candy like flavor. Heaven. Montmorency are the most widely-grown tart variety in the United States More than two-thirds of all Montmorency tart cherries are grown in Michigan, and most of those are grown in the pinky finger of the state, which is the area around Traverse City.