This cherry pie has a buttery, flaky crust and a filling of tart cherries that is not too sweet. If you like it a little more sweeter, just sprinkle granulated sugar over the filling before adding the lattice top.
Ingredients
For the filling:
900g (or 4 cups) drained, bottled cherries
480 (or 2 cups) cherry syrup from the bottled cherries
big pinch of table salt
5 teaspoons corn starch
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon kirsch or raspberry eau de vie (optional)
For the crust:
250g (or 2 cups) all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
180g (or ¾ cup + 2 teaspoons) unsalted butter
6-8 tablespoons of buttermilk
To make it pretty:
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon of water
coarse granulated sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
First, prepare the filling:
Place the cherries in a heatproof bowl. Combine the cherry syrup and salt in a medium-sized pan. Place the pan over medium-high heat and allow the syrup to come to a simmer, stirring occasionally to dissolve the salt.
In the meantime, combine the cornstarch with a few tablespoons of the syrup (from the pan) in a small bowl. Stir until smooth.
Once the syrup is simmering, add the cornstarch paste, whisking continuously to prevent lumps. Keep whisking while you allow the syrup to thicken and come to a boil again. Once the syrup has thickened, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Stir the vanilla and kirsch or eau de vie into the syrup, then pour the syrup over the cherries in the bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature.
Proceed with the pie crust:
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt and sugar. Add the cubed butter and use a pastry cutter to work the butter into the flour. What you want is a crumbly mixture with pea-sized pieces of butter in it. It’s okay if there are a few bigger or smaller pieces of butter, as long as majority of the butter chunks is pea-sized.
Add the buttermilk and stir with a wooden spoon or with a rubber spatula until the dough comes together. Using your hands, divide the dough into three equal chunks. Quickly press two of the chunks together in a flat disc. Wrap with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to cool. Shape the other dough chunk into a flat rectangular shape, wrap with plastic wrap too and place in the fridge to chill. Allow the dough to chill for at least one hour.
Once the cherry filling has come to room temperature and the dough has chilled…
preheat your oven to 175°C/350°C (standard oven setting) and place an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven. My oven has four rack positions, so I placed the rack on the second shelf from the bottom.
Take the dough disc out of the fridge and roll it out between two lightly floured pieces of baking parchment until it’s about 30-cm/12-inches in diameter. By rolling it between two sheets of baking parchment, the dough is less likely to stick.
Gently peel the top sheet of parchment off of the dough, then lightly flour the dough and place the parchment back on. Flip the dough (including the two pieces of parchment), peel the other piece of parchment off the dough and lightly flour this side of the dough too.
Carefully transfer the floured dough to a 9-inch pie dish, allowing it to ‘fall’ into the dish, instead of pushing the center of the dough down. With a sharp knife, cut away any overhanging dough. Place the pie dish in the fridge to chill.
Take the rectangular piece of dough out of the fridge. Roll it out between two new sheets of lightly floured baking parchment until it’s about 26-cm (or 10½-inches) long and 18-cm (or 8-inches) wide. Using a sharp knife, cut six 1-cm or ½-inch strips and four 2-cm (or 1-inch strips).
Remove the pie dish from the fridge and fill it with the cooled cherry filling. Lay three thin and two thick dough strips over the filling then weave the remaining dough strips through in an under-and-over pattern to create the lattice top.
Roll the edges of the pie inwards, slightly over the dough strips, to create a nice edge. Brush the lattice top and the edges of the pie with the egg wash, then sprinkle generously with granulated sugar.
Bake for 75 minutes, or until the juices are bubbly and the lattice top has turned a gorgeous golden brown. Once the cake is done, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before cutting into it. Enjoy!
Recipe by The Tough Cookie at https://thetoughcookie.com/2014/05/26/cherry-pie/