It is Cherry season! We love them in our house so when a friend asked me to come round to help picking, I didn’t wait to be asked twice! The eating is well worth the effort…. I knew the moment my older son saw them, he would ask for an “American style” cherry pie: I have only ever made them out of a “packet”, I had to figure out my own version….
Cherry filling: I made it the day before as we return from picking….
- About 2 cups of pitted cherries, 500g
- 100 sugar ( I used my vanilla infused)
- 8tsp cornstarch
- 1tsp vanilla extract + 1tbsp lemon juice
- Place the cherries, sugar and cornstarch in a pan and allow to stand for 10mn until the sugar draws out the juice from the fruit
- Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then lower the heat, simmering for 1mn
- Remove from the pan and stir in the vanilla extract and lemon juice (as sour as you prefer)
- Allow to cool to lukewarm if used on the day. I covered mine and left it at room temperature
Ingredients:
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry:
- 250g flour
- 160g cold butter, diced
- 50ml milk, at room temperature
- 3g salt
- 15g vanilla sugar
- 1 egg yolk
Biscuit topping:
- 200g self-raising flour
- 50g butter, diced
- 60g sugar
- 1tsp ground vanilla
- 70ml milk + extra for glazing
Preparation:
Basically, I was having a food processor day, so much easier!
Pastry:
- At a low speed, mix the flour, butter, sugar and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs
- Add the milk and yolk and mix a few seconds until it has an even consistency
- Rest in the fridge for at least an hour
- Grease or line a 26cm/10″ pie tin (mine is loose bottom) and preheat oven to 180°C/ 160°fan/ Gas 4
- Roll the pastry out and transfer to tin ( I had too much so froze 1/3)
- Bake blind for 20 to 30mn
Biscuit:
- Once the pastry is out of the oven, turn it up to 200/180
- At low speed, mix the flour, ground vanilla and butter together until it makes fine breadcrumbs
- Add sugar and the milk and mix to form a soft dough
- Roll it out roughly
- Spread the cherry mixture into the pastry case
- Top with the biscuit dough, make some cuts for venting and glaze with milk
- Bake in the oven for 45mn but do check after 30mn as you might need to cove your biscuit with foil once it’s golden
- Leave to cool for 5mn before turning out onto a wire rack. Eat warm or cold!
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