Wednesday 7 March 2012

Mmmmmm warm and tasty Cherry Pie

Cherry pie is one of the boyfriends favourite desserts (he has a lot of favourites) and it's something I've been meaning to bake for a while.

I actually made this a week or so ago but I've been quite busy and have just come back from a lovely weekend away in the lakes that involved lots of walking, hiking, relaxing and a lot of good food including some amazing homemade cakes.

Any way back to the cherry pie, it's such a simple but tasty desert and is one of those desserts I see as homely proper baking perfect for curling up on the couch with on a cold night. I'm not a massive fan of pies but the pastry was lovely and soft with a crisp top and not to dry and the filling was super tasty, the almond extract and added brandy (optional) give it a lovely taste. Here it is:


Ok so boyfriend couldn't wait till I'd taken a picture to have a warm slice so it's a rushed very bad picture of most of the pie, the filling also was more than it looks on this picture.


Next time I will try to be more uniform and neat with my lattice top but I wasn't very patient this time.

Any way here's how it's made:

Cherry lattice pie:  (via the big book of baking)



For the pastry:

140g Plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Mixed spice
pinch Salt
50g Caster sugar
55g Unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
1 egg Beaten plus extra for glazing.


For the filling:

900g Stoned fresh cherries or canned cherries, drained (and stoned if not already)
150g Caster sugar
1/2 tsp Almond extract
2 tsp Cherry brandy (optional)  - regular brandy can also be used.
1/4 tsp Mixed spice
2 tbsp Cornflour
2tbsp Water
25g Butter

 To make the pastry, sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir in the mixed spice salt and sugar then rub in the butter until the mixture has a breadcrumb like consistency. Add the beaten egg and mix into a firm dough, adding a few drops of water if needed. roll into a ball and wrap in clingfilm, Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220degC and grease a 9 inch round tart tin. Cut the pastry in half and roll out into two rounds, using one to line the tin.

To make the filling, put half the cherries with the sugar into a pan and bring to a simmer over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has melted. stir in the almond extract, brandy and mixed spice. In a separate bowl mix together the cornflour and water. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cornflour paste, then return to the heat and stir until the mixture boils and thickens. Leave to cool a little before stirring in the remaining cherries. Pour this into the pastry case and dot with butter.

Cut the remaining pastry round into strips and lay some across the pie and then the remainder running the other way, folding under every other strip to form a lattice, I found that you need to lift the strips right up to do this without getting covered in filling so make sure you don't stick any ends down until your done. Trim off the edges and seal with water. Crimp around the rim with your fingers or a fork the brush the top with beaten egg.

Cover with foil then bake in the oven for 30 mins then remove the foil and bake for a further 15 minutes or until golden.


And that's all. I have loads of cupcake orders for March, it's a busy month for birthday's and holidays so I'm off to get planning the next batch.

Cupcake Kris
xxx

4 comments:

Manu said...

What a beautiful pie!
Have a nice evening

Zoe said...

Cherry pie is always my favourite and your is so perfectly baked with lots of nostalgic looks and flavours. Beautiful!

Unknown said...

That looks lovely. I've never had cherry pie and I must try it after seeing this :-) xx

Erika Beth, the Messy Chef said...

When I was young I told my grandmother that cherry pie was my favorite pie. I think I chose it because it was so pretty. Can you blame me? Yours looks lovely!