Cherry pie
A juicy, bright cherry pie is pretty hard to beat. Will you serve yours with custard, cream or ice cream?
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 225g/8oz strong white flour
- 5g/â…›oz fine salt
- 15²µ/½´Ç³ú caster sugar
- 175g/6oz unsalted butter, cold, cubed, plus extra for greasing
- 2 tbsp milk, for brushing
- 1 tbsp demerara sugar, for sprinkling
For the cherries
- 500g/1lb 2 oz cherries, pitted (or frozen, see tip)
- 180g/6oz golden caster sugar
- ¼ tsp almond extract, or almond liqueur, such as Disaronno (optional)
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú cornflour
To serve
- ice cream, custard or cream
Method
To make the pastry, in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flour, salt and sugar together (or this can be done in a large bowl). Add the butter and mix until the butter has formed breadcrumbs – you still want to be able to see some chunks of butter. Pour in 70ml/2½fl oz of ice cold water in one go and mix quickly to form a dough.
Tip the dough out onto a clean work surface and bring together with your hands. Wrap tightly in cling film and place in the fridge to firm up for about 4 hours.
To make the filling, put the cherries in a large bowl. Coat them in the sugar, almond extract or liqueur (if using) and the cornflour. Set aside the filling while you prepare the pie case – there may be some juice that leaches out from the cherries but don't worry too much as the cornflour will help thicken the filling.
To assemble, remove the dough from the fridge and gently knead the cold dough a bit. Cut one-third off and set it aside for the top.
Roll the pastry out to 4mm/â…›in. Grease a 20cm/8in pie case or closed bottom cake tin and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Line the tin with the pastry, leaving a bit of an overhang. Keep the scraps of pastry if you have any and add this to the reserved pastry for the lid. Put the lined tin in the fridge while you prepare the top.
Roll the rest of the pastry to 4mm/â…›in and cut a lattice pattern (or leave as is if preferred). Put in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes on the prepared baking tray.
Once the case and top are cold, remove from the fridge, add the cherry mixture to the pie case and top with the lid. Pinch the edge of the pie and the top together to seal. If the top is being left whole (and not latticed) pierce a hole in the top. Return to the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 6.
Put a heavy baking tray in the oven to heat up – it works best on the very bottom shelf of the oven. Brush the top of the pie with milk and sprinkle the demerara sugar on the top. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until golden-brown. Check regularly and if the pie is getting too brown, cover with foil.
Allow to cool slightly before serving with ice cream, custard or cream.
Recipe Tips
You can use frozen cherries for this recipe, just make sure they are fully defrosted before use. Once defrosted, strain off the excess liquid before tossing in sugar and cornflour. It’s also a good idea to taste
