spiced cherry pie

My old man turned 65 last Saturday.

It’s kind of scary when your parents get older because by this stage you’ve grown out of your teenage rebellion and really appreciate them.

Suddenly your parent’s careful concern doesn’t seem so annoying.

Like the time your mother firmly refused to allow you, at age 13, to wear to school more eye-liner than a coal miner.
Or the time your father eyeballed you anxiously when you brought home one of his old school chums and introduced him as your new boyfriend.

Yes, parents do have a certain wisdom.

So now my Dad is 65, and for his birthday I baked him a cherry pie.
I used my pastry and filling recipe, with Chez Pim's addition of ginger, cloves and nutmeg.

This spiced cherry pie went very nicely with the amazing Sweet & Smoky Barbecued Pork Ribs that are my father's crowning culinary achievement.

Happy birthday Dad!

Cherry Pie

Anna’s recipe, influenced by Chez Pim. Serves 6-8 people.

Ingredients:
Filling
1kg sweet cherries
2 teaspoons cornflour
½ cup vanilla sugar
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger powder
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of clove
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Pastry
350g chilled butter, chopped
3½ cups plain flour
4 tablespoons sugar
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
1 egg, lightly beaten
Sugar, for dusting

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease pie dish.

2. Sift flour and pinch of salt. Rub in butter until crumbly. Add sugar. Add 2-4 tablespoons of water. Mix.

3. Gather dough. Divide into two balls. Flatten balls and roll into circles large enough to line pie dish. Put one circle in base of pie dish. Wrap and chill remaining circle.

4. In a pan combine the cherries, spices, sugar and lemon juice, and heat over a gentle flame.

5. Scoop out ¼ cup of the liquid that has gathered in the pot and mix with the cornflour until dissolved.

6. Add cornflour mixture to cherries and stir over low heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

7. Pour filling into pie dish, cover with remaining dough and cut edges with a knife to remove excess pastry from sides. Remember the pastry will shrink, so don’t cut off too much.

8. Roll out excess pastry and use cookie cutters to shape decorative cut-outs, using the beaten egg wash as glue. Glaze pastry with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

9. Prick or slice pastry to allow steam to escape during cooking. Bake for 40 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and crunchy.

Note: My pastry tears very easily and is very, very difficult to manoeuvre. The pay off for your patience is that it’s crunchy and delicious when you eat the pie.
Note: My original blueberry pie recipe used only half the pastry ingredients but upon making this for my cherry pie I didn't have enough pastry. The measurements you see above are the doubled version which I think will be much better and allow excess for decoration.
Note: You can make the filling and pastry the day before. I would refrigerate the base already fitted to the tin and the lid rolled out flat onto the plate. Bring everything to room temperature before pouring the cherries filling into the pie base and ensure your pastry lid is malleable to fit and seal. Bake as above.

Cherries are my theme for Weekend Herb Blogging this week and I've blogged the history and uses of these wonderful plump fruits before (check it out).

Check out all the recap and other WHB recipes from this week at Katie's Eat This!.


M&M's cherry recipes:
Cherrylicious (cocktail)
Duck w Cherries
Meggyleves (Hungarian sour cherry soup)
Schwarzwälderkirschtorte (German black forest cake)

From the M&M archives:
2009 - Sahlap (Turkish orchid milk)