Cherry Pie

After chocolate, my most favourite dessert’s got to be a fruit pie. As much as I love the classic apple pie, a good Cherry Pie is something I crave for. Sweet sour juicy filling encased in a buttery flaky crust… yes you want it, I know. You are welcome!

Making pies does not have to be complicated at all. In fact, you need no fancy ingredients at all. A basic pie dough, made with the pantry staples and  fruits of your choice. If you don’t want to make a lattice pattern like in this Cherry Pie recipe, you can simply just cover the fruit filling with another piece of rolled out dough and make slits in it. Or leave it uncovered to make galette, like  in my PLUM GALETTE or my Apple Marzipan Galette.

Fruit fillings are the easiest. Simply mix the prepared fruit in a bowl with sugar to taste, some cornflour and a splash of lemon juice. More sugar for sour fruit and less for sweet ones. Totally straightforward, right?

As with all pies, this gorgeous Cherry Pie is also a dream combined with some whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla icecream. And they are the best served warm, though I’ve been known to ( more often than not) eat them cold, straight from the fridge. I’m not at all fastidious like that! I just want my pie!

Now some pointers for making basic pie dough :

• Make sure your butter or coconut oil ( if using) is completely chilled and cut into small cubes.
• Use chilled water. Or simply add some ice cubes to the water you’ll be using.
• Chill your flour too.
• Be careful not to overwork the dough. You don’t need to knead it. Just pull it all together. It should feel a bit sticky and moist. Not dry.
• This recipe uses whole-wheat flour. You can make it glutenfree using buckwheat flour like I did for Apple Marzipan Galette ,  Chai Spiced Plum Galette  and Mulberry Pie.
• I made the pastry with butter in this recipe, but go ahead with coconut oil ( chilled) if you prefer to make it VEGAN.

So here’s the summer’s special Cherry Pie. Perfect for entertaining or just as a wonderful treat for home. I’d love to hear from you. Please do rate and comment below! You can also FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM , PINTEREST and  FACEBOOK for more fabulous recipes!

Print Recipe

Cherry Pie

After chocolate, my most favourite dessert's got be a fruit pie. As much as I love the classic apple pie, a good Cherry Pie is something I crave for. Sweet sour juicy filling encased in a buttery flaky crust... yes you want it, I know. You are welcome!

Servings: 6 persons

Author: Natasha Minocha

Ingredients

Pie Crust

• 200 gms Wholewheat flour You can use all purpose flour as well.
• 100 gms Butter, chilled, cut into cubes I used salted butter
• 1 tbsp Caster /powdered sugar
• 3-4 tbsp Chilled water

Cherry Filling:

• 350-400 gms Cherries, pitted
• 4-5 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp Cornflour
• 2 tsp Lemon juice

Instructions

Crust:

• Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl. Rub the chilled butter in the mixture, using your fingertips. When it resembles coarse breadcrumbs, add iced cold water, 1 Tbsp at a time, just enough to bind the dough. It can be a bit a scraggy at this point, but don’t worry, it will come together. Using the palm of your hand, push the dough away from you 4-5 times until its smooth.
• Roll into a ball and flatten it into a disk. Wrap in clingwrap and refrigerate until ready to use. This should rest for at least an hour.
• When you’re ready to bake, keep a 7" pie pan handy and preheat the oven to 180C.

Filling:

• Combine the pitted cherries, sugar, cornflour and lemon juice in a bowl.

Assembly:

• Unwrap the dough and flour your work surface well. Divide the dough into 2/3rd and 1/3rd parts.
• Working with the bigger part, roll it out into an 9" circle. Place the dough gently into the pie pan. Trim the edges of the pastry to fit the sides of the pan.
• Spoon the cherry filling into the pie.
• Combine the pie trimmings with the balance pie dough. Roll it out into an 8" circle. Using a sharp knife, cut into 16 strips. Lay 8 strips of dough on the pie filling in one direction.Crimp the edges of the strips with the pastry lining the pan. Now lay the balance 8 strips of dough crosswise across the filling. Again crimp the pastry edges. Brush with melted butter or cream or beaten egg.
• Bake for 30 -35 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the juices bubbling. Allow the pie to cool for a couple hours before slicing and serving. Enjoy!